Candle sparks fire in Seaford

A quick response by firefighters limited the damage to once unit at the Cedar Cove senior apartment complex in Seaford last week. Three people were left homeless and were provided with emergency sheltering by the Red Cross.

The Wantagh Fire Department was summoned to the complex on Cedar Street in the Seaford Harbor neighborhood at 12:30 a.m. on Jan. 14. Firefighters found fire in the bedroom in a first-floor apartment at 2713 Cedar Street. It was quickly extinguished, according to Wantagh Fire Chief Jim Bloomfield. The rest of the apartment had smoke damage.

“The bedroom was destroyed,” said Bloomfield, who attributed the cause of the fire to an unattended burning candle. He said the candle caught the bedspread on fire, and then the mattress. It spread to the nightstand and other furniture.

Three adults who live in the unit all escaped and were treated for smoke inhalation at the scene. The Fire Department also treated another resident of a nearby unit who came outside and slipped.

According to Michael Devulpillies, a spokesman for the Red Cross, the agency provided the family with temporary housing as well as funds for food, clothing and other immediate necessities.

About 60 firefighters and medics responded to the scene. Bloomfield said that first truck, from Wantagh’s Station 3 a few blocks away, was on scene within minutes. “We were there pretty quick,” he said, adding that units also responded from Station 5 and headquarters. No mutual aid was needed.

Bloomfield said that the apartment will need repairs before the family can move back in. He said the blaze should be a precautionary tale about leaving a room with candles still burning. “Pay attention,” he said. “It certainly could have been a preventable fire.”