By:Jerry Burke
Approximately 120 firefighters and 12 trucks from the Franklin Square, Elmont and West Hempstead volunteer departments quickly quelled the Hoffman Street blaze after a 911 call alerted authorities to the fire at a single-family residence at 10:45 p.m.
According to Detective Robert Matedero of the Nassau County Arson Bomb Squad, an initial investigation led authorities to believe the fire was not suspicious, and appeared to have started in a faulty closet light fixture. Matedero said that all five occupants of the house at the time of the blaze, three adults and two children, escaped and were waiting outside the home when firefighters arrived.
According to police reports, the children's grandmother first smelled smoke as she was putting her 4-year-old grandson to bed in a back bedroom on the second floor. She immediately picked up the boy and alerted her son and daughter-in-law, who were in the basement at the time, to the fire. Her son told everyone to leave, said Matedero.
One of the children, a 1 1/2-year-old girl, suffered second-degree burns to her left arm and hand after the fire spread into the bedroom where she was sleeping. Matedero said that her father, 33-year-old Abraham Thomas, ran through the fire-engulfed room to rescue her, grabbed her and ran out.
The little girl was transported to the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit of the Nassau University Medical Center in East Meadow. After initially being listed in critical but stable condition, the hospital confirmed Monday that her injuries were not life-threatening. Matedero said intense heat rather than actual contact with the fire caused the burns.
Three firefighters suffered minor injuries during the effort to extinguish the fire, but are all reported to be fine.
Officials said that the fire did not spread to any other homes and that property damage was contained to the home, which sustained major fire, smoke and water damage.
Comments about this story? JBurke@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 234.
