By JOSEPH KELLARD
At the time of the incident, about 11:25 a.m., there were no customers pumping gas, but the station attendant sustained a minor injury, according to officials.
The Island Park Fire Department responded to the scene, along with representatives of the Nassau County fire marshal¹s office and the Long Island Power Authority. ³Once we arrived, the gas valves were shut off right away,² said IPFD Chief Robert Wells.
LIPA spokesman Michael Lownes said that the utility shut down power at the station at about 12:40 p.m.
Both Wells and Herman Wiegand, assistant chief at the fire marshal¹s office, said that there was minimal damage to the gas pumps, and no fuel was released. Wiegand explained that the station would be unable to operate until the structure is restored. ³We have issued a stop order to make sure that nothing operationally goes on there until the extinguishing system is fully restored and meets all of the codes with respect to flammable liquid,² he said.
The Town of Hempstead did not return calls about what might have caused the roof to collapse.
While Wiegand stressed that he is not a building engineer, he said that photos taken at the site show that the cause probably had to do with the stability of the structure. ³Some of those steel beams looked pretty rotted, so it might have been a combination of the weight of the ice [from a snowstorm the previous day] and probably some aging in the structure itself,² he said.
Comments about this story? JKellard@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 287.
