Firefighters from the Mineola Fire Department and neighboring departments extinguished a fire at the Ellsworth Avenue home of the Mineola department’s ex-chief Richard Kotowski early Tuesday afternoon.
Approximately 50 firefighters from the Mineola, Williston Park, Garden City Park and Garden City Fire Departments responded to the fire call at 12:35 p.m. The cause of the fire was apparently electrical, according to Mineola Fire Department Chief Joseph Pratt.
Lt. Mike DeStefano and Lt. Carl Nunziata, the first Mineola firefighters to arrive on the scene, saw a Long Island Power Authority sparking on the ground in the front of the house engulfed in smoke.
“We believe it was an electrical situation caused by the house supply line from the pole to the house,” Pratt said.
Firefighters entered the house through a first-floor side door and immediately attacked the blaze on the first floor of the house, Pratt said. They also extinguished smaller, secondary fires on the second floor of the house in an operation that took more than two hours before the house was secured.
“They put the fire out with minimal damage to the house,” Pratt said.
Substantial fire damage on the second floor exterior of the west side of the house and the roof was evident.
No one was in the house at the time of the fire and Kotowski was notified of the fire by phone. No injuries were sustained at the scene.
A LIPA technician arrived on the scene to disconnect the power line from the pole approximately 45 minutes after the firefighters arrived, according to Pratt.
County fire marshalls have not determined the cause of the fire, which remains under investigation.
