By Cris Italia and Joseph Kellard
"The units got there relatively quickly after the alarm came in," said deputy chief Sean Lynch. "As the fire department was stretching the hose line to extinguish it, the garage actually collapsed."
OJC director Leonard Learner described the shack as a 100-year-old abandoned garage. "It was boarded up," Learner said. "But from time to time kids get in there and do drugs. There was nothing in there of value, and nothing to indicate that it was a bias crime."
Police quickly played down the possiblity of a link to a bias incident last week at the Middle Bay Country Club, where two swastikas and the word "Jews" were scratched into the third fairway. Police say the two incidents are not linked, but the bias unit is still investigating the possibility.
In another arson last week, police arrested three teenagers after they allegedly set a garbage can on fire on the School 2 grounds at Terrell Avenue. "We did look into that, and as far as we know, there are no links between the two," said James Hickman, an investigator for the Nassau County Fire Marshall. "Nothing has developed up to this point."
The garbage can arson occurred just a day after the synagogue fire, on Saturday, Oct. 18. One 13-year-old was charged with starting the fire, and two other teenagers were charged with trespassing.
At the scene, Learner said that the Fire Marshall explained that an accelerant was used, but the intense fire could also be a function of chemicals in the wood, and that they are waiting for lab tests to come back. "The floor of the structure was still pretty much intact and it's close to 100 years old," Learner said. "There's natural turpentine in the wood, and that could be what the [search] dog smelled."
Incidents at the old garage aren't out of the ordinary, according to Learner. "We've had problems for a long time now with kids breaking into the barn," he said. "[They] are doing drugs, and doing it behind another storage shed we have."
