Elmont senior co-op fire damages building vacated after flooding
At least 18 fire departments battled a fire at the shuttered senior housing complex on Foster Meadow Lane just after midnight on Saturday. Credit: Paul Mazza
An overnight fire at an abandoned Elmont senior co-op badly damaged the building and cast the future of the embattled facility in question.
The Nassau County Police Department said emergency responders descended on the scene, located at 1888 Foster Meadow Lane, at 12:01 a.m.
Michael Uttaro, Nassau County's chief fire marshal, said a total of 18 fire departments and 200 firefighters responded. The Nassau County Fire Marshal Investigations Division and the Nassau County Police Department's Arson Bomb Squad are jointly investigating the blaze, Uttaro said.
"Due to the structural instability of the building the cause of the fire remains undetermined," Uttaro said in a text.
The Town of Hempstead’s building department is on scene, Uttaro said, "to determine if the building will need to be torn down due to the extensive damage."
The building suffered severe damage but no injuries were reported, Nassau police said in a statement. During the response, an intense fire blazed on the roof and the awning leading to the entrance of the building.
The 30-unit co-op building, which previously housed around 60 residents, closed on Sept. 29, 2023, when it was flooded during a rainstorm, displacing the seniors who lived there. Then, in January, a third-floor pipe burst and flooded the apartments below, Newsday previously reported.
Ruth Coleman, a board member of the co-op, said the board was learning more information about the fire and possible next steps.
"My concern is, how did something like this happen?" Coleman said during a phone call. "There is no power in that building at all."
In recent months, residents have returned to collect some of their belongings, Newsday reported.
Assemb. Michaelle Solages (D-Elmont) said the fire was "another sad chapter in the story of these seniors being displaced.
"It’s upsetting to see that now we’re falling back. Now we’re just at a point where we have to pick up the pieces together."
She said she wouldn’t abandon the cause of getting the seniors back into homes.
"We just have to take a different path," she said.
It’s unclear what was left inside the facility before the fire. Solages said furniture and other large items were still inside at a press event a few weeks ago.
"The lobby was still decorated," Solages said. "It was almost like frozen in time."
Brandon Marcel, whose mother, Christine Gertz, 72, lived at the facility, said not much was salvageable inside based on the previous mold and flood damage but that the fire likely snuffs out any chance of taking items from the building.
Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman filed a lawsuit on Oct. 4 against the building’s current and former management companies in an effort, he said, to hold those parties accountable for the conditions at the facility. While the residents weren’t named in the suit, as members of the co-op, they are shareholders and therefore own the building, as well.
Dorian Glover, an Uniondale attorney representing the residents in the county's lawsuit, said in a statement that the fire was "very disheartening" and "another blow to our Golden Age seniors and residents."
Town of Hempstead spokesman Brian Devine said in a text message Saturday morning that any official action against the facility will "have to wait" pending the Fire Marshal's determination.
With John Asbury
An overnight fire at an abandoned Elmont senior co-op badly damaged the building and cast the future of the embattled facility in question.
The Nassau County Police Department said emergency responders descended on the scene, located at 1888 Foster Meadow Lane, at 12:01 a.m.
Michael Uttaro, Nassau County's chief fire marshal, said a total of 18 fire departments and 200 firefighters responded. The Nassau County Fire Marshal Investigations Division and the Nassau County Police Department's Arson Bomb Squad are jointly investigating the blaze, Uttaro said.
"Due to the structural instability of the building the cause of the fire remains undetermined," Uttaro said in a text.
The Town of Hempstead’s building department is on scene, Uttaro said, "to determine if the building will need to be torn down due to the extensive damage."
The building suffered severe damage but no injuries were reported, Nassau police said in a statement. During the response, an intense fire blazed on the roof and the awning leading to the entrance of the building.
The 30-unit co-op building, which previously housed around 60 residents, closed on Sept. 29, 2023, when it was flooded during a rainstorm, displacing the seniors who lived there. Then, in January, a third-floor pipe burst and flooded the apartments below, Newsday previously reported.
Ruth Coleman, a board member of the co-op, said the board was learning more information about the fire and possible next steps.
"My concern is, how did something like this happen?" Coleman said during a phone call. "There is no power in that building at all."
In recent months, residents have returned to collect some of their belongings, Newsday reported.
Assemb. Michaelle Solages (D-Elmont) said the fire was "another sad chapter in the story of these seniors being displaced.
"It’s upsetting to see that now we’re falling back. Now we’re just at a point where we have to pick up the pieces together."
She said she wouldn’t abandon the cause of getting the seniors back into homes.
"We just have to take a different path," she said.
It’s unclear what was left inside the facility before the fire. Solages said furniture and other large items were still inside at a press event a few weeks ago.
"The lobby was still decorated," Solages said. "It was almost like frozen in time."
Brandon Marcel, whose mother, Christine Gertz, 72, lived at the facility, said not much was salvageable inside based on the previous mold and flood damage but that the fire likely snuffs out any chance of taking items from the building.
Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman filed a lawsuit on Oct. 4 against the building’s current and former management companies in an effort, he said, to hold those parties accountable for the conditions at the facility. While the residents weren’t named in the suit, as members of the co-op, they are shareholders and therefore own the building, as well.
Dorian Glover, an Uniondale attorney representing the residents in the county's lawsuit, said in a statement that the fire was "very disheartening" and "another blow to our Golden Age seniors and residents."
Town of Hempstead spokesman Brian Devine said in a text message Saturday morning that any official action against the facility will "have to wait" pending the Fire Marshal's determination.
With John Asbury
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'No one wants to pay more taxes than they need to' Nearly 20,000 Long Islanders work in town and city government. A Newsday investigation found a growing number of them are making more than $200,000 a year. NewsdayTV's Andrew Ehinger reports.
