By Brian Zanzonico
Joseph Sicari, a widowed World War II veteran and retired postal worker who lived alone on Ribbon Street, lit a cigarette just before 7 a.m. and sparked an explosion that leveled his home. The force of the blast damaged nearby residences and forced neighbors to evacuate their homes. The Nassau County Fire Marshal's Office determined that a coupling connecting the hose line to the gas line in Sicari's kitchen stove was loose and leaking gas.
"He had a lot of health issues in the past as it was," said Maureen Binetti, who lives around the block from Sicari. "Heart problems, things like that. And after the fire, it didn't look good."
Binetti, whose daughters went to school with Sicari's daughters, said his granddaughter, Janine, was married two days after the explosion.
Moments after the house exploded, Dennis Canese, an ex-captain of the Franklin Square & Munson Fire Department, and John Novello, an active member of the department and a math teacher at Valley Stream North High School, rushed in and rescued the badly burned man. Chief Rick Greenwood of the Franklin Square & Munson department said the fact that Canese and Novello knew that Sicari lived alone spared firefighters from searching for others inside. Six neighboring fire departments helped put out the fire. Two firefighters were hospitalized for smoke inhalation and chest pains.
"It's fortunate they were there," said Greenwood, who lives a couple of blocks from Ribbon Street. "I was the first one to respond. As I started to put my gear on I said to myself, How am I going to get into this house that's fully involved? That they were there took a lot of pressure off me."
Canese, who was getting ready to leave for work, said that coming to the aid of a neighbor in danger was different than other calls he has responded to in his 14 years in the department. "It hit home," he said. "It was a neighbor we've known for 20-something years. It's much more emotionally draining than responding to someone in town you don't know."
Binetti said the force of the blast sent Sicari's chimney crashing through next-door neighbor Lucy and Peter Acquavella's bedroom.
Sicari is survived by two daughters and several grandchildren, Binetti said. His funeral Mass was held Tuesday morning at St. Catherine of Sienna Church in Franklin Square, and he was buried with military honors at Calverton National Cemetery in Suffolk County.
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