Thursday, October 1, 2026
Long Beach firefighters responded to a fire in a seven-story co-op building on Shore Road Tuesday night that led to the evacuation of nearly 50 tenants.
Residents of 522 Shore Road, between Franklin and Neptune boulevards, said the fire started on the second floor and that smoke was detected in apartment 2A, on the east side of the 246-unit building, known as the Park Deauville, just before 6 p.m.
Tenants were quickly evacuated by Long Beach police officers and firefighters, who knocked on doors and ushered them out of the building. No injuries were reported, and residents at the scene said the occupant of 2A was not at home when the fire broke out.
Fire Chief Scott Kemins said that the department received an emergency call at 5:30, after the building’s superintendent smelled smoke. Kemins said it appeared that the fire was electrical and started in a wall dividing apartments 1A and 2A. More than 100 Long Beach firefighters responded to the scene, as well as units from Island Park, Point Lookout, Oceanside and Lawrence/Cedarhurst. Departments in Baldwin, Inwood and Rockville Centre were on standby.
“You need to have extra manpower to check for extension of the fire,” Kemins explained. “Until we knew the extent of the fire, we evacuated the east side of the building.”
While it was initially thought that the fire might have spread through the building’s trash compactor, Kemins said that it was confined to apartment 2A and extinguished within 30 minutes. The blaze was not suspicious but could have turned tragic, Kemins added, if it had occurred in the early-morning hours, while tenants were sleeping. “It could have been worse,” he said. “Obviously, that type of building fire could spread quickly.”
One resident, who asked not to be named, said the fire “could have been a tragedy.”
