By JOSEPH KELLARD
The fire ignited in the hanger-like garage area where discarded air conditioners, refrigerators and scrap metal are stored, and soon became a large, raging blaze in which BFD firefighters were on the scene under the command 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 Baldwin Fire Department sent Hose Company 202 to the scene of the fire.
Eight volunteer firefighters were sent from Baldwin, and all returned home safely, according to Doug Weidmann, first deputy chief of Baldwin.
While fighting the flames, the firefighters found the fire hydrants on the transfer station property were unable to provide adequate water to put out the fire, and stretched a hose 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.
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 unofficially, "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 enough heat so that the heat 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 hose stretched across Long Beach Road, police shut down this 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, hangar-like area of the station, caught fire 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 slide across the concrete floor and contact with exposed metal reinforcing rods," said Gene Pitzak, a fire investigator at the Nassau County Fire Marshals 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 townspokesperson 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 will be fixed.
