By Jeff Lipton
Cunningham grabbed a fire extinguisher from his business and sprayed the quick-moving blaze, potentially saving some businesses from being licked by the flames, which shot about 10 feet into the air in some spots.
"I just kept dousing it until I finally put it out," said Cunningham, owner of Pure Fitness Sports Club, at 4160 Industrial Place. "It was spreading rapidly and it definitely could have been bad."
Cunningham said he was training a client shortly after 10:30 a.m. on June 13, when he heard one of his patrons say there was a fire outside. An oversized tractor-trailer reportedly was traveling along Industrial Place when it hit the LIPA wires, ripping them from a self-storage business next door to the fitness club. The live wires came crashing to the ground and set ablaze the dry brush surrounding about eight businesses in a quarter-block area of Industrial Place.
Someone called 911, but Cunningham did not hesitate, deciding not to wait for firefighters to arrive.
"I saw potentially that it could be a big fire, so I came running out with my fire extinguisher and hit the flames with the extinguisher," said Cunningham, who was standing only about five feet away from the flames. "I hit it pretty good."
By the time the Island Park Fire Department arrived, Cunningham had already put out the flames. Police officers from the 4th Precinct also arrived as did work crews from the Long Island Power Authority. It appeared that only the self-storage business sustained an outage during the incident and power was restored at around 1:30 p.m.
No one was reported injured. It is not known if any charges or summonses were brought against the driver of the tractor-trailer.
Long Beach resident Heather Somerstein, a client at the sports club, said she was pulling up to the club as Cunningham was running out of it with the fire extinguisher. She said she was extremely impressed with his quick actions in stopping the blaze only feet from area businesses.
"When Chris came out and put out that brush fire, it was really, really huge," said Somerstein, who helped direct traffic away from the block, where the electrical wires were still live.
"It was extraordinarily heroic and humble of him because he didn't think it was a big deal," Somerstein said.
She said the block has some auto repair shops and it could have been disastrous if the fire touched those businesses because of the potential of gasoline being ignited.
"It could have gotten out of control if not for Chris Cunningham," she said. "He put it out safely for everyone around him. It was not his business that was in danger. I was just blown away by what he did."
Comments about this story? Jlipton@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 210.
