Car in Flames at Crystal House

Two residents suffered smoke inhalation and a firefighter was sent to a local hospital after a car caught fire at an East End apartment building Wednesday evening.

Firefighters responded to a call about a car on fire in a garage at the Crystal House, a 180 unit rental building at 630 Shore Rd., at about 8:45 p.m.

“The garage was actually pitch black with smoke,” said Richard Corbett, chief of the Long Beach Fire Department.

Corbett said the car was parked about 250 feet in the garage and around a bend from the street.

“Due to the depth of the fire it took a little while to locate it,” he said. “In the garage, there’s no way for the smoke to ventilate, so it was just stagnant in there.”

Firefighters in full protective equipment entered the garage using thermal imaging cameras to locate the car amid the thick smoke. They stretched two fire hoses through the garage and a third through a hallway inside the building in order to battle the blaze, which was brought under control within an hour, Corbett said.

Two residents were treated for smoke inhalation and anxiety, and one Long Beach firefighter suffered a leg injury and was transported to South Nassau Communities Hospital in Oceanside, Corbett said. 

The fire was upgraded to a second alarm fire and firefighters from surrounding departments, including Rockville Centre and Oceanside, were either on the scene or at staging area at both Long Beach fire headquarters at City Hall and the Centre Millwood parking lot on Long Beach Boulevard next to the Michael Valente Memorial Long Beach Bridge.

Corbett said that police spoke with the owner of the car, who said he had trouble with its air conditioner. The Nassau County Fire Marshals Office is investigating the fire. “It doesn’t appear to be suspicious,” Corbett added.