Updated

L.B. firefighters battle early-morning blaze

Cigarette believed to have started fire that damaged two houses

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   Long Beach firefighters and police rushed to the scene of an early-morning house fire on Tuesday that caused extensive damage to two homes on West Fulton Street. Fire officials said it was most likely caused by a discarded cigarette.

The fire was reported at 2:17 a.m., Long Beach Fire Chief R.J. Tuccillo said, on the 100 block of West Fulton. Approximately 40 city firefighters responded to the scene, with assistance from the Point Lookout-Lido, Island Park, Atlantic Beach, Lawrence-Cedarhurst, Oceanside, Inwood, Rockville Centre, Freeport and Baldwin Fire departments. In total, 65 firefighters were on the scene.

Long Beach police officers arrived first, Tuccillo said, and evacuated six residents of 107 West Fulton, a two-family home. “Police officers knocked down their doors to alert them to get out of the house,” a relative, Jennifer Marie, wrote on a website created to assist the family. “When they stepped outside and saw their house up in flames, they realized their lives would never be the same. They are going to have to start over with nothing besides the clothes on their backs and the positive memories made through the years to get them by.”

No injuries were reported, though the city said that its pre-deployed paramedics were on the scene in less than a minute and initiated patient care. “They were keeping the family warm in the ambulance,” Tuccillo said.

Family members could not be reached for comment, and Marie did not respond to a request for comment as the Herald went to press.

Tuccillo said that there was an initial report that a victim was trapped in the burning home, but firefighters determined after a search that all of the occupants had escaped.

The adjacent home, at 111 West Fulton, was vacant and undergoing renovations. Tuccillo said that the fire began between the homes in a pile of debris, and that due to the intense heat and the flames that spread to their exteriors, the fire made its way into their attics through their ventilation systems. There was extensive interior smoke damage as well.

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