Fire Strikes Sandy-Damaged Home, Spreads

A fire broke out at a Canals home and spread to two neighboring houses Thursday afternoon.

The blaze started at the rear of a two-story home at 11 Armour St., after which Long Beach Fire Department received a call about the fire at 2:43 p.m., Commissioner Scott Kemins told Patch from the command center outside the home.

The flames spread to the exterior of another home, at 12 Doyle St., directly behind the first home, as well as to the exterior of the house next door, at 9 Armour.

Kemins said there were no injuries but a Long Beach police officer was transported to an area hospital with heat exhaustion. The Nassau County Fire Marshal was called to the scene, he said.  

Follow Long Beach Patch on Facebook.

A resident, Robin Waller, said she called 911 after she smelled smoke in her home, located across the street at 18 Armour.

“I looked outside and I saw flames shooting straight up from behind the home and embers were heading over to my home,” Waller told Patch. “And about a half hour later the flames were coming through the windows at the front of the home and a lot of black smoke.”

Jaclyn Feldman and Connie DiBenadetto, who live in a ranch at 15 Armour, next door to the home that caught fire, said they were in Atlantic Beach when Waller called them about the fire and told them she would rescue their two dogs, Thelma and Louise, from their home in case the fire spread north. Waller brought the dogs to safety at her home.

Feldman and DiBenadetto said that two men, Kurt Kress and John O’Grady, live at the home that caught fire but were out at the time. They said the men were displaced after Hurricane Sandy destroyed the first floor of their home. In the eight months since then they had rebuilt their home and were just days away from moving back. They were living most recently at the home next door, at 9 Armour.

During the storm in October a fire ripped through 10 homes in the Canals neighborhood.