Four firefighters were injured Sunday in Levittown after a blaze considered suspicious by authorities set off fireworks stored inside a shed behind a home, police and fire officials said.
Firefighters responding to reports of a fire on Ranch Lane went into the shed and were faced with a "large column of smoke . . . followed by multiple explosions," according to a Levittown Fire Department statement. The fire was in the yard and had reached the shed when firefighters arrived about 4:30 p.m., the statement said.
"They went to put the fire out and what happened was the fireworks started going off," a spokesman said.
Nassau police officials said fireworks stored in a plumbing pipe exploded.
The cause of the fire was not known last night. The firefighters were treated at Nassau University Medical Center and released, the fire spokesman said. Three suffered minor burns and one suffered an arm injury, he said. Their names were not released. No civilians were injured, the spokesman said.
The Nassau County fire marshal's office and the Nassau County Police Department's Arson/Bomb Squad were investigating the incident, according to the Levittown statement.
A next-door neighbor on Ranch Lane last night said he heard explosions in the yard during the fire.
"There was some stuff in the shed that just popped loudly," said Robert Aquino, 59. The house was unscathed, he said.
Aquino called his neighbors nice people and expressed relief that they were unhurt. A Levittown fire spokeswoman last night did not know whether the family was at home at the time of the blaze.
Nine Levittown emergency vehicles, a Wantagh Fire Department ambulance and units from the East Meadow, North Bellmore and Hicksville fire departments responded to the scene, fire officials said.
Copyright 2012 - Newsday, Melville, N.Y.
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
