Hempstead apartment complex fire started by plumbing work, official says

A fire inside a six-floor Hempstead apartment building Thursday afternoon displaced residents of at least two units, fire officials said.

Hempstead Village police said there were no injuries.

The Hempstead Fire Department responded to a call Thursday afternoon of a fire inside one of the buildings at the Washington Square apartments, a multibuilding apartment complex, according to 1st Assistant Chief Chris Fitzroy. Upon arrival, he said responders met maintenance workers who said the fire began as they were doing plumbing work in a first floor apartment.

“They were soldering pipes” and hit insulation, which “is highly flammable and it went up that pipe chase,” he said.

Although the workers reported putting the initial blaze out themselves, Fitzroy said firefighters investigated the bathrooms atop one another floor-by-floor, using thermal imaging to detect fire through the walls. The responders examining the fifth floor noticed smoke in the bathroom, so that wall was opened, and dousing began.

Firefighters opened the bathroom walls of eight apartments, six in a column along one side of the pipes, and two on the other, to extinguish the blaze, Fitzroy said.

“From what I’m hearing right now, there’s two apartments that people are not able to go back to,” he added at around 4:15 p.m. after the fire had been extinguished.

Nassau County fire marshals will determine which apartments are inhabitable, Fitzroy said. 

The South Hempstead Fire department also responded.

Volunteers with the American Red Cross were on the scene to assist displaced residents. Members of the agency declined to comment Thursday afternoon, tsaying they were still trying to assess how many residents may need help.

Hallways on several floors showed signs of water damage that residents said did not exist before the fire, including leaking ceilings, sopping wet carpets and bubbling behind at least one wall.