8 residents evacuate unhurt from house fire on Piper Lane in Searingtown, second major Nassau fire in 2 days

About 100 firefighters from eight departments battled an early morning blaze that began in an air conditioning unit and caused major damage to a home in Searingtown on Tuesday, police said.

It was the second major fire in Nassau County in as many days, authorities said.

Nassau County police said eight residents were able to safely evacuate the Searingtown home without injury.

Police said the fire at thePiper Drive home was reported in a 911 call at 12:39 a.m. Members of the Albertson Fire Department, assisted by personnel from seven additional departments, extinguished the blaze.

Investigators from the Nassau County Fire Marshal’s Office and police Arson/Bomb Squad detectives were investigating the cause of the fire, but police said the preliminary cause was an electrical fire related to a second-floor air conditioning unit in the home.

The fire is not considered suspicious. The investigation is continuing.

One day earlier, multiple companies were called to put down a fast-moving fire on Arbuckle Avenue in Cedarhurst. 

About 55 firefighters from Lawrence, Cedarhurst and five other companies were called to extinguish the blaze that consumed a detached garage, said Michael F. Uttaro, Nassau County's chief fire marshal.

The cause of this fire remains under investigation, Uttaro said, though authorities have not ruled out whether lithium-ion batteries on an electric bicycle in the garage were to blame.

Firefighters are increasingly concerned about the danger posed by lithium-ion batteries on motorized scooters and bicycles, especially cheap knockoffs that don't meet industry standards.                                                                       

In Brooklyn on Sunday, firefighters battled a swift-moving fire in Crown Heights that killed three generations of the same family.

NYPD and FDNY officials said the three died in a fire on Albany Avenue that was sparked by lithium-ion batteries used to power a motorized scooter. 

FDNY Commissioner Laura Kavanagh laid the blame for the rash of related fires on retailers and online apps that sell the "illegal, uncertified" batteries.

"There is blood on the hands of this industry," Kavanagh said at a news conference in front of the burned out residence.

Fires sparked by these batteries expand very quickly and create a "wall of flames," that firefighters struggle to get through, Kavanagh said. The batteries are responsible for 17 deaths in New York City this year, she said.

By John Valenti

john.valenti@newsday.com

John Valenti, a reporter at Newsday since 1981, has been honored nationally by the Associated Press and Society of the Silurians for investigative, enterprise and breaking news reporting, as well as column writing, and is the author of “Swee'pea,” a book about former New York playground basketball star Lloyd Daniels. Valenti is featured in the Emmy Award-winning ESPN 30-for-30 film “Big Shot.”