By PAUL J. CONDRA
But while that question re-mains, the more pressing one seems to be what will become of the 150 people who lived at the Nathan Hale Senior Village, many of whom, officials said, didn't have insurance on their belongings and are now without homes and, in some cases, without the medicines they need.
They walked out of there with their pajamas; they didn't even have their teeth with them, said Lynbrook Mayor Eugene Scarpato, who announced the creation of a Nathan Hale fund to assist the victims of the fire.
Residents at Nathan Hale enjoy-ed reduced living prices in the state-sponsored building, which went up in 1972, was government subsidized, Scarpato said. Now they will have to look elsewhere for such accommodations.
The problem is that these people aren't going to get back in there for a year, he said. There's nothing else like that in Lynbrook. He said assisted living homes can cost three or four times as much.
In the meantime, displaced residents will have to find somewhere else to live. But as Nathan Hale manager Jack Gordon said, finding comparable prices in the area will be impossible, adding there is a waiting list a few years long to get into Nathan Hale. Gordon said they plan to rebuild the house as quickly as possible.
The problem is compounded by the fact that many residents will most likely not be compensated for their losses. Gordon estimated that only about 10 percent of the tenants had purchased room insurance.
Nassau County Legislator Francis Becker, the brother of Rob Becker, who is the president of Nathan Hale's board of directors, said after touring the burnt building about 75 percent of the belongings are lost, mostly to water damage.
Lou Bello, the Lynbrook building superintendent, said the damage will be up in the millions of dollars. He said the building had no sprinkler system, but that it was built to meet a 1968 code which didn't call for sprinklers on that size building.
We learn from our mistakes, he said, adding that even today's code doesn't call for sprinkler systems on buildings that are a maximum of three stories high.
Many of the displaced residents need wheelchairs and canes to get around, and just about all of them need several medications to get through the day.
While some efforts to fast-track medications have been successful such as those at Lakeview Pharmacy, where owner Jules Rosenberg said he had no problem at all clearing prescription refills officials said it's not all going so smoothly.
Even with pressure from Assemblyman Bob Barra, who monitoring the situation from Albany said getting medication is a top priority, some are reporting difficulty.
Scarpato said he knows of people who were told their insurance wouldn't cover medicine costs until the old prescription ran out, even though they could not get to their medication because of the fire. One such medication is Cuminum which the mayor also uses that is used to regulate blood consistency.
But Lynbrook residents are doing what they can to ease the problems facing this group of seniors.
When Robert Ferraro, a local architect and Nathan Hale board member, heard people needed to buy their medicines, he donated $1,000 to cover the costs. Little did he know, his money wasn't needed, thanks to pharmacies like Picker's on Atlantic Ave. Owner Kanti Vadsola decided to give prescriptions away and wait for the insurance companies to come through with payment.
The Nassau Red Cross has also set up a headquarters at the Lynbrook recreation center to distribute aid, and residents have been relocated to homes in Queens and Nassau. Still, it isn't clear how long temporary solutions will last, and the long-term impacts of the fire are going to be much more difficult to take care of.
To contribute to the Nathan Hale fund, one may contact Lynbrook Village Hall at 599-8300. Checks may be mailed to Nathan Hale Fund, care of Rob Becker, 173 Earle Avenue, Lynbrook NY 11563.
