By: Evan Nemeroff
Police reported Thursday that four people perished in an early-morning fire on Lawrence Avenue and Mill Street in Lawrence.
Police Lt. Kevin Smith told reporters that there were four fatalities in the blaze, which started on the ground floor of the building at 234 Lawrence Ave. A laundromat occupies the ground floor, but police could not say the exact location where the fire started or the cause of the fire, as the blaze is under investigation by the Nassau County Fire Marshal's office.
Although police did not release names of the victims, information as of Thursday morning is that eight people were living in one of the two apartments in the building, apartment 1B. The four victims were a 46-year-old mother, a 19-year-old man, a 10-year-old girl and a 9-year-old girl who was a twin. Her twin sister escaped the fire, as well as three other members of that family.
All four occupants of apartment 1A escaped. Twelve people had lived in the two apartments above the laundromat.
Another building next door was also somewhat burned, but all occupants escaped that building and firefighters put that blaze out quickly.
Fire Departments from Lawrence Cedarhurst and other communities responded.
Reporting by Evan Nemeroff and John O'Connell, photographs by Andrew Vardakis.
