A house fire claimed the life of a 72-year-old woman in Mineola early Tuesday morning.
The Mineola Fire Department responded quickly to the call about the house fire at 167 Jackson Ave. shortly after midnight and the 90 members who responded with four ladder trucks and a rescue truck eventually brought the fire under control by 1:30 a.m., according to Mineola Fire Department Chief Robert Connolly.
“On arriving, we found that the rear of the house was fully engulfed,” Connolly said. “We started making an aggressive attack on the fire. That‘s when we found a victim in the rear bedroom who had succumbed to her injuries.”
The fire was spreading to the second floor of the two-family house, and firefighters initially climbed onto the roof in an attempt to prevent it from spreading into the attic of the house. But Connolly said the roof was weakened from the damage to the underlying structure and firemen were forced to subdue the flames by breaking into the attic from ladders placed against the sides of the house.
A ladder truck from the Williston Park Fire Department assisted at the scene, along with a rescue vehicle from Garden City Park Fire Department, according to Connolly, who said that additional units from the New Hyde Park and Garden City Fire Departments provided stand-by support.
The fire marshal and the county police arson/bomb squad also responded to the scene and determined that the cause of the fire appeared to be non-suspicious, police said.
Connolly, who arrived at the scene with First Deputy Chief Joseph Pratt, said the cause of the fire remains undetermined.
“At this point it appears to be accidental,” Connolly said.
He said the Nassau County Fire Marshall’s office is investigating the blaze.
The identity of the elderly female victim who was discovered in the rear bedroom of the house was not being released by the Nassau County Police Department as of Wednesday. Occupants of an apartment on the west side of the house who had been in the house when the fire started evacuated the blazing structure before firefighters arrived at the scene, according to Connolly.
Connolly said the fatality was the first one to occur in Mineola since 1999.
Reach reporter Richard Tedesco by e-mail at rtedesco@theislandnow.com or by phone at 516.307.1045 x204
