By JOSEPH KELLARD
The July 25 fire ignited in the hangar-like garage area where discarded air conditioners, refrigerators and scrap metal are stored, and soon became a large, raging blaze in which RVCFD firefighters were on the scene under the command of Sean Lynch, chief of the Oceanside Fire Department.
The OFD received a call from an employee at the transfer facility at about 10:50 a.m., and the RVCFD sent an ambulance, ladder truck and engine truck to stand by at OFD headquarters. The two trucks were soon relocated to the scene of the fire.
"The Rockville Centre Fire Department is what we call our fast team," said Tom McDermott, first deputy chief of the OFD. "In case something happens in an emergency situation, they can come in an assist us."
While fighting the flames, the firefighters discovered that the fire hydrants on the transfer station property were unable to provide adequate water to put out the fire, and stretched hoses to a hydrant across Long Beach Road. In the midst of this problem, the RVCFD trucks at OFD headquarters were called to the transfer station.
"They responded to help us to supply water," McDermott said.
Lynch said that the fire was caused by a payloader inside the refuse area moving around while an air conditioner was crushed underneath its blade. "The operator of the payloader didn't see it," Lynch said, "and he kept pushing forward, and the scraping of the refrigerator against the concrete floor made some sparks, which started the fire."
Lynch described the fire as "very large," generating heat so that it did as much damage to the building as the flames, creating concerns about the building's structure. "This heat caused a stress crack that basically went from the foundation all the way up," Lynch said. "That was some pretty serious damage, and for that reason we didn't put any of the firefighters in the building. We thought the integrity of the building was questionable and it could potentially collapse."
With hoses stretched across Long Beach Road, police shut down the main artery from Daly Boulevard in Oceanside to Empire Boulevard in Island Park, and traffic was diverted. Long Beach Road was reopened at about 1:40 p.m., according to the OFD. The fire was reported to be under control at 2:30 p.m., with the damage contained mainly to the garage area. No firefighters were injured, and all the employees were safely evacuated.
The fire was the second at the transfer facility in less than two years. A high mound of rubbish, comprising old refrigerators, air conditioners and landscape materials such as tree branches and bushes, stored in the rear area of the station, caught fire on Sept. 8, 2003.
"The cause of the fire is listed as mechanical friction - sparks as a result of metal - either from the payloader blade or a refrigerator unit itself, that was crushed under the payloader, being slid across the concrete floor and contact with exposed metal reinforcing rods," Gene Pitzak, a fire investigator at the Nassau County Fire Marshal's office, said about last week's blaze. Pitzak added that "more than likely the first item ignited could have been insulation and foam in the refrigerator unit, or the sparks kicked out into combustible material that was in the pile."
A town spokesperson said that an engineer visited the building the following day and reported no serious damage to the foundation of the building, and that the main hydrant on the transfer station property would be fixed.
