By: Karenlyn Barone
The horrific fire, Lynbrook's most intense to date, tested the skills and strength of everyone involved as they raced to contain the furious flames and billowing black smoke. The obstacles the firefighters and rescue workers encountered that cold and rainy night made their efforts all the more valiant.
Mike DiGiambattista, assistant superintendent at the complex, was awakened by the sound of the master alarm board in his on-sight apartment. This was not an uncommon occurrence and his first thought was that one of the tenants was up late cooking and had triggered the alarm with a minor problem.
"I saw it was about 2 in the morning and I thought, I can't believe someone is burning toast at this hour," said DiGiambattista. "But when I smelled the smoke I knew we had a serious problem."
DiGiambattista left his wife, Donna, and sons, Michael, 16, and James, 13, sleeping and ran up to the fourth floor, which his alarm box had indicated was the source of the fire. He found the hallway full of stunned and frightened residents who had been awakened by the sound of the fire alarm.
"The hall was full of thick, black smoke, but I could see that the smoke was coming from resident Rita Callahan's apartment," said DiGiambattista. "Someone ran down to get building superintendent, Danny Murray, and I started ushering the residents to the stairwell."
At that same moment, First Assistant Chief John Crowley was racing to the fire, having been alerted by his fire department radio of the Doxsey Place fire. A firefighter for 26 years, Crowley knew he would probably be called to engineer the rescue efforts and fire containment, since Fire Chief John Obanhein was at work, some 30 minutes away.
"I went through everything in my mind while I drove to the fire," said Crowley. "I had to take into consideration that the complex is located at the end of a dead-end street and getting fire trucks down there would be difficult, but I couldn't imagine the other obstacles that were waiting for us."
Having maneuvered the trucks into rescue location, Crowley soon realized that the fire truck ladders were about 3 feet too short to reach the fourth floor, where several windows were already over spilling with furious flames. Remarkably, residents who signaled from their windows for help were able to be pulled to safety by the sheer skill and determination of the volunteer firefighters.
DiGiambattista encountered his own problems as he tried to evacuate the apartments. He had to enter several apartments with his master key, often shaking residents to wake them and guide them to the safe exits. "Some of the residents wear hearing aids, which they turn off when they go to sleep," said DiGiambattista. "They were sound asleep and I physically had to wake them as fast as possible and nudge them out of their apartments."
David Pearsall, second assistant chief, who initially saw the flames from his home a few blocks away, was the chief in charge of the fire floor. He spent more than one hour in the building, working through the unbearable heat and debilitating smoke and is credited with coordinating the safe evacuation of countless residents.
James McDermott, third assistant chief, was inside the inferno and personally rescued two elderly female residents whom he found in their apartments, virtually paralyzed by fear. He quickly escorted the first to the stairwell and the second he handed out the window to fellow firefighters who maneuvered her down the ladder to safety.
The real difficulty for McDermott was the communication problem he experienced when his low band radio failed, due to the steel construction of the building. The department has since secured a grant from the Federal Emergency Management Association and purchased high-band radios with the funds. They are proud to have saved taxpayers about $132,000 by applying for the grant.
The firefighters who responded to the fire that fateful night saved countless lives. "It was a beautiful thing," said DiGiambattista. "The fire department did a great job making sure everyone was safe. The medical company did an outstanding job, too."
Crowley, anticipating that numerous residents would need medical assistance, ordered that the medical company set up a triage area two blocks away in the parking lot of the 7-11 on Atlantic Avenue. Subsequently, 19 mutual aid ambulances were used to transport the victims to local hospitals. The only one who could not be saved was Callahan, 81, the resident of the apartment where the fire started. To date, there has been no concrete determination of the cause of the fire, which blazed for more than an hour.
A year later, still full of haunting thoughts, DiGiambattista is living in a trailer on the property of Nathan Hale, until his family and the residents can move back into the refurbished building. "As I go from floor to floor while I am working, I think about the fire and what went on that terrible night," said DiGiambattista. "Some people say I'm a hero, but I don't think of it that way. I did what I had to do."
McDermott is understandably proud of the way his fellow firefighters performed. "There is a sense of accomplishment that we were able to put people in place to do the job that needed to be done," he said.
The Lynbrook Fire Department will have their heroic efforts recognized by Nassau County in a ceremony on April 23, where nine of Lynbrook's bravest will also be cited for individual acts of heroism relating to the fire.
