פייער אין שיכון סקווער
דעם לעצטן טאג פסח.
ליידער דעם דריטען פייער דעם פסח
ומי באש.
New Square fire
By NANCY CUTLER
THE JOURNAL NEWS
(Original Publication: May 2, 2005)
A fire yesterday, on the last day of Passover, burned three New Square families out of their homes and left two firefighters and two Ramapo police officers slightly injured.
No one was home at 4 Wilson Ave. at the time of the fire, but initial reports that residents were trapped sent police and firefighters to search the burning building.
Flames from the first floor were licking at the eaves of the three-story home by the time firefighters arrived at the 11:28 a.m. fire, said 1st Assistant Chief Chris Kear of the Hillcrest Fire Department.
The fire melted the vinyl siding of homes on either side. The next house, 6-8 Wilson, which was about 10 feet away, was checked inside to make sure no fire had ignited, Kear said.
Aron Kaff, a member of Hatzoloh Ambulance Corps, lives nearby.
"I hear screaming on the streets, saw fire ... everybody's screaming that one guy was still in the house," Kaff said. The fire was so hot, Kaff couldn't enter the front of the building, he said. "I lay on the ground screaming the man's name."
When police arrived, Kaff said, he told them one man could be inside.
"The officers came with heart," Kaff said. "I couldn't believe it. They took a side door to try and find the guy."
When a search by police and then firefighters kept turning up nothing, Kaff had someone check the man's synagogue. He was quickly located there.
During the search, two police officers, Denise Dougherty and Christopher Franklin, suffered smoke inhalation, police said. Dougherty was taken to Good Samaritan Hospital by Spring Hill Ambulance Corps, where she was released after treatment; Franklin was treated at the fire scene by Hatzoloh Ambulance Corps members.
Two firefighters were also injured. Briones Perionnes of the Spring Valley department was apparently injured when his leg went through the floor, and Seth Conklin of the Hillcrest department hurt his shoulder when he pulled Perionnes out, Ramapo police said.
The home is owned by Joel and Chaya Fischl, police said. Families were staying with relatives in New Square, Kaff said.
Community members were concerned about old religious books in the house valued at thousands of dollars, Kear said, and firefighters safely retrieved them.
The books are handwritten texts of religious interpretation, brought with families from Europe, Kaff said last night.
Kear said the wood-frame house was 60 feet long and 50 feet deep. The fire appeared to have started on the lowest level, to the left of two sets of stairs at the center of the house, he said.
Once firefighters were sure no one was in building, they continued to attack the fire from the inside for three or four minutes more and realized the fire was too strong and it was too risky.
"We just couldn't get ahead of the fire," Kear said. They then worked on the fire from the outside with hoses and ladder trucks.
Kear said firefighters had believed the building contained all residential units, but there was a printing business on the right side.
"We are anticipating an apartment, with a certain layout. Now we're going into an area where that's all changed," Kear said. "Now it's a printing business ... is there flammable ink, products, paper?"
The Rockland County Sheriff's Bureau of Criminal Investigation was investigating, and Kear expected to hear some findings today.
The timing of the blaze, on the final day of Passover, was not good, Kaff said, but the timing turned out to be fortuitous. "Lucky it didn't happen in the middle of the night."
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