By John C. O'Connell
Hendrickson Bros. warehouse fire labeled suspicious
Over 90 Valley Stream firefighters and more than 100 from other departments responded to a suspicious fire at a vacant warehouse near the northeast corner of North Central Avenue and Merrick Road Saturday night.
No one was inside the 10,000 square foot Hendrickson Bros. building off East Avenue when firefighters reached the scene at about 10 p.m. Heavy smoke was pouring out of the one-story cement block building, fully involved in fire with flames shooting 15 feet above the roof, according to witnesses at the scene.
Captain Robert O'Brien of Engine 344 was first on the scene and commanded the original attack on the fire until Chief James Murphy arrived shortly afterwards. Six trucks and four towers or aerial ladder trucks were used around the warehouse to put out the fire.
Battling bitter cold winds as well as the fire, Valley Stream and other village fire departments put the fire out within about three hours, according to Chief Murphy.
No firefighters were injured in battling the blaze.
While police blocked off Central Avenue and Merrick Road, firefighters from departments in Elmont, Lynbrook, Malverne, Hewlett, Lawrence-Cedarhurst, East Rockaway and Inwood assisted the Valley Stream vols and Rockville Centre stood watch at Valley Stream fire command on Rockaway Avenue, ready to respond to other local emergencies.
Chief Murphy said that the firefighters did a fine job especially with the ice and low temperatures and strong wind they also had to fight. "The fire extended into the roof of the main warehouse."
The fire has been labeled suspicious because the empty building contained no boiler, gas utilities, electrical connections or other typical fire sources. Nassau County Fire Marshal's office is investigating.
At the request of the fire department, the village had posted no trespassing signs around the property, enabling more effective enforcement of laws prohibiting unauthorized use of the property if trespassers were caught.
The warehouse is part of a large piece of vacant property behind the King Kullen supermarket east of North Central Avenue and north of Merrick Road.
Mayor Edward Cahill was on the scene, and said it is frigid nights like this that demonstrate the dedication of the village's volunteer firefighters. "They were here in spite of the fierce winds and cold making sure that the real danger of the fire spreading to nearby homes was stopped. I know the community very much appreciates the work these volunteers do."
The mayor said that village highway superintendent Nick Camerano was on the scene with two pieces of equipment including a payloader and a crane from the county to be used after the fire was out.
Equipment operator Gerard Kelly of Nassau County's sewer maintenance department was on the scene Sunday morning with his 20-ton Linklift crane. "We were alerted by Nassau County Fire Command to come overhaul the building, basically to make it secure," he said. Such work was at a standstill Sunday afternoon, however, because of cars parked too close to the wrecked building. The objective Sunday was to pull down obviously dangerous parts of the structure and cordon off the area and make it safe.
Mayor Cahill, Deputy Mayor Guido Cirenza and Chief Murphy were back on the scene Sunday afternoon. Village workers joined Kelly in cleaning up the caved-in and gutted building as much as possible of structural or debris hazards.
The area has been trouble for some time, the mayor said of the proposed site of a new, larger King Kullen shopping center. Nathan Serota, the developer of that project, plans to clear the vacant lots, dormant loading-dock sheds and empty warehouse buildings and replace them and the current King Kullen with a modern, 50,000-square-foot supermarket, several retail stores and a parking field for more than 500 cars to create a new shopping center on about nine acres.
Fires in nearby sheds on the property last March 15 were also labeled suspicious by fire marshals. It took nearly 25 firefighters with six trucks almost an hour and a half to extinguish those shed fires.
Serota owns the current King Kullen supermarket property and Hendrickson Brothers owns the adjacent vacant lots and warehouse buildings and properties. Serota would merge the two properties for his development.
The new King Kullen project received state environmental quality review act approval by the village zoning board in April 1999 and its action was affirmed by the state Supreme Court late last December after neighbors filed a procedural review suit known as an Article 78.
Nearby residents against the project, calling themselves the Concerned Citizens of Valley Stream, filed an appeal of the judge's Article 78 decision, effectively preventing for now demolition of the existing buildings and redevelopment of the area. A decision on that appeal is expected in April.
