County honors Bellmore Fire Department

Bellmore Fire Department volunteers were recently honored for their role in extinguishing an out-of-control blaze that erupted on Sunrise Highway after a gasoline tanker crashed in December.

The Nassau County Fire Commission presented the department with a Unit Citation at the commission’s annual awards ceremony on April 30. Vincent Scaduto, the Bellmore F.D.’s spokesman, said the department was recognized for preventing loss of life after the tanker flipped onto its side on Dec. 17, causing a fuel spill that erupted in flames.

Four and a half months after the fire, dozens of Bellmore firefighters gathered at the Francis X. Pendl Nassau County Firefighters Museum and Education Center in Garden City to accept the award. Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano and Legislators Dave Denenberg and Norma Gonsalves were on hand to congratulate them.

Officials estimated that 3,000 to 7,000 gallons of fuel escaped from the tanker, which struck the back of a car that was stopped at a red light at Sunrise and Newbridge Road at 11:52 p.m. The truck turned onto its side and slid east on Sunrise, spilling fuel along the way before stopping at Brevoort Place.

The fuel caught fire, officials said, damaging nearby cars and homes on Brevoort. But, Scaduto said, firefighters extinguished the blaze in about 90 minutes — before the flames could spread to other homes and injure residents.

The drivers of both vehicles got out before the fire ignited, Scaduto said. They were taken to Nassau University Medical Center in East Meadow, where they were treated for non-life-threatening injuries.

No one else was injured, as the homes on Brevoort Place did not catch fire. Scaduto said that the siding on four of the five houses on the short block between Sunrise and Clinton Street melted in the heat of the blaze, along with a PVC fence. There was no other damage to the homes, but residents were evacuated.

Besides Bellmore, 10 departments, including nearby units from North Bellmore, Merrick, North Merrick and East Meadow, helped extinguish the blaze. Officials poured water on the fire and sprayed foam across it to ensure that the fuel would not reignite. Because of frigid temperatures, Nassau Inter County Express buses were used as warming stations for the crews of firefighters who worked into the night.

For the Bellmore Herald Life's coverage of the fire in December, click here.