Elderly couple hurt in Wantagh house fire

An elderly Wantagh couple was hospitalized Saturday afternoon after a raging fire destroyed their home, a fire department spokesman said.

The blaze tore through the first floor of the Cape Cod-style house and spread to the second story. It took about a half-hour to bring the fire under control, said the spokesman, Harry Loud of the Wantagh Fire Department.

Officials have "no idea" what sparked the fire at the home on Hannington Avenue, Loud said. The fire's cause isn't suspicious, according to the Nassau County police arson and bomb squad.

Police said last night that the fire appears to have started in a bedroom.

The alarm was sounded at 1:52 p.m. Authorities broke down the front door and found the man in a front room, unconscious and burned. Medics performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation, Loud said, calling the man's condition "very critical."

The woman, who suffered from smoke inhalation, was pulled out of a rear door, Loud said.

Both victims, who are 80, were taken to Nassau University Medical Center in East Meadow. An update on their condition wasn't available early Saturday evening. Their names weren't made public.

Fire officials said the couple's pets, a cat and a dog, died in the blaze.

A next-door neighbor, Phyllis Distefano, 59, said she called 911 after seeing smoke billowing from the house. "But by then I think the whole inside of the house was on fire," she said.

"Our hearts go out to them," Sue Mavridis, another neighbor, said of the victims.