Fireworks could be to blame for fire, department says

During the final minutes of July 4, a fire ignited at an industrial site in Franklin Square, on the corner of Park and Franklin avenues. Rich Gresser, second assistant chief for the Franklin Square & Munson Fire Department, said fireworks could be to blame.

Gresser said the department received a 911 call from a resident who witnessed the fire at 12:06 a.m. on July 5. The fire was likely burning for several minutes before the call, he added.

The Franklin Square & Munson Fire Department arrived on scene around 12:10 a.m., Gresser said, and put out the fire just before 1 a.m. No other departments were needed to help fight the fire, he said, because it was relatively small, and was well-contained at the site — a concrete yard owned by a local distributor and used for storage.

Gresser said that an approximately 12-foot-high, 20-foot-wide stack of rubber padding — the material used for playground mats — caught on fire, and the fire did not move to other areas of the site. The site is located within a residential area of Franklin Square. No injuries were reported.

"Possibly fireworks set it off, but the exact cause is still unknown," Gresser said, adding that the fire is still under investigation by the Nassau County Fire Marshal's Office.