By Jeff Lipton
Samter, a volunteer with the Woodmere Fire Department, was one of several good Samaritans who felt the need to help out, shortly after the fire erupted at about 3 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 7.
He grabbed a pediatric mask from an ambulance and gave one exotic bird oxygen, which helped to resuscitate it.
All of the animals that were inside the hospital were rescued, except for one 75-year-old cockatoo, who succumbed from smoke inhalation. That bird was a private pet of the animal hospital owners, Martin and Fern Zipkin, who have operated the facility for 31 years at 1225 Broadway.
Everyone did a great job. They were all wonderful, said Fern Zipkin, two days after the fire. It was a wonderful community effort. Everyone was helpful and caring.
She said the blaze started in a basement gas laundry dryer that had been purchased recently. The fire was contained to the basement, but smoke spread to the floor above, where the animals were kept.
The fire started in the dryer and then spread to some towels in a laundry basket, which fueled the blaze, said Steve Wenk, assistant chief for the Nassau County Fire Marshal.
I would say there was moderate to considerable fire damage, but there was heavy smoke damage, Wenk said. Smoke poured throughout the building.
A 16-year-old girl, who is a kennel assistant and was alone in the animal hospital for about 15 minutes at the time noticed the smoke and ran out, bringing the animals with her. Inside the building at the time were four dogs, two birds and two cats, Ms. Zipkin said.
Marion Bilich and her friend, Susan Bonfiglio, both area psychologists, were walking by when they saw the 16-year-old girl hysterical outside the building with the animals. They used their expertise to calm her down and helped her care for the animals as the firefighters put out the blaze.
We noticed that she was trying to put a leash on three dogs and they were running around, Bilich said. We watched her, but we had no idea what was happening.
She saw us, asked us if we had a cell phone because she said there was a fire inside. She started screaming about the animals and we tried to calm her down. She was so frightened. Her only concern was about the animals and how she was going to get the animals out.
Bilich said she got stuck holding onto a pit bull. Under normal circumstances, I would have been afraid of a pit bull, but it never occurred to me it might be dangerous, she said. All the animals were frightened.
She said the dogs were shaking in their arms, so they tried to keep them warm.
The firemen were just running in and getting the animals out as fast as they could, Bilich said.
Samter said he was on his way out of his office at Gruntal and Co., at 1255 Hewlett Plaza, where he is first vice president of investments, when he saw the commotion. He said he saw Dr. Zipkin working on one bird and he saw that another bird was in trouble, so he got oxygen from a Woodmere Fire Department truck and grabbed the pediatric mask and applied it on the bird.
The firemen did a great job getting the animals out of the hospital, said Samter, who is an ex-captain of the Woodmere Fire Department ambulance crew. It could have been a disaster if it had not been for them.
They did what they are trained to do, he added. It's the same as if the animals were trapped in a house fire.
Samter said he is an animal lover, with three dogs and five cats of his own at home.
I have a lot of animals myself at home. I would hope that someone would do the same for me if they were in trouble, he said.
Ms. Zipkin said the hospital, which is also used as a pet resort, was cleaned up and back to normal by Friday, Nov. 9.
She said the dryer which caught on fire was two weeks old. No animals were kept in the basement, which is used for storage only. She said luckily this is the off time of year for the hospital and not too many animals were inside at the time of the blaze. Six animals were due in on Nov. 9 and five had just been sent home, she said.
We have already started to renovate and the place will be more beautiful than before, she said. Fortunately, this had a very good outcome.
