Baldwin buildings burned in suspicious blaze knocked down

Most of the buildings in a line of stores damaged in a Baldwin fire Thursday morning officials deemed suspicious have been demolished, Nassau County fire officials said Friday.

Investigators are trying to determine the cause of the blaze."We've ruled out all the natural causes," county fire marshal's office division supervisor Vincent McManus said, adding investigators recovered evidence samples from the building where the fire originated.

Demolition crews knocked down the buildings at about 6:30 p.m., officials said.

The stores, which line Grand Avenue between the Baldwin Fire Department fire house and Merrick Road, had been slated for demolition as part of a controversial redevelopment plan that has been on the drawing board for several years.

The row of so-called "taxpayer buildings" - with storefronts on the ground floor and apartments above - was the scene of a fire just last year, McManus said.

All the apartments were vacant, and some stores were vacant as well, officials said.

Investigators said they interviewed the building owner at the scene, but did not provide details of that interview.

The fire was around the corner from the site of another fire on May 3 that destroyed eight buildings in a similar row of stores and apartments on Merrick Road, east of Grand. That blaze severely damaged eight stores and left 21 residents homeless, according to the Nassau Chapter of the American Red Cross.

In the fire Thursday, two volunteer firefighters suffer minor injuries, with both treated for heat exhaustion, officials said. No one else was injured.

The blaze was reported at 8:37 a.m. and fast grew into a three-alarm fire that was battled by 12 local departments.

Departments responding to the scene were: Baldwin, Oceanside, Freeport, Hempstead, South Hempstead, Roosevelt, Island Park, Long Beach, Rockville Centre, Lynbrook, Lakeville and Uniondale, officials said. The fire closed down Grand Avenue between Sunrise Highway and Merrick for hours.