‘We need help.’ Nassau seniors plead for help to find new home after co-op burns to the ground
A fire broke out around midnight Saturday morning at the apartments at 1888 Foster Meadow Lane in Elmont. Over 200 firefighters responded to the blaze and continued putting out hotspots until around 3pm Saturday afternoon.
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Former residents of a Nassau co-op for senior citizens say they don’t know where else to go after their hopes of returning to their apartments in Elmont went up in flames Saturday morning.
A fire broke out around midnight Saturday morning at the apartments at 1888 Foster Meadow Lane in Elmont. Over 200 firefighters responded to the blaze and continued putting out hotspots until around 3pm Saturday afternoon.
Resident Christine McLaughlin said she was devastated to learn what happened.
"I don't know if I'm going to ever be able to go back cause it's all burned down,” she said. "All of my belongings that was in there is destroyed!"
The building had been vacant for over a year, had no electricity, no running water, no working fire protection systems, and was boarded up before the blaze.
Nassau County Chief Fire Marshal Mike Uttaro says he and other investigators couldn’t even get into the building to determine what started the fire.
"In a couple of areas, all the floors had collapsed. Exterior walls had collapsed. The roof had collapsed, the truss system,” he said. “So it made the building very unstable and very dangerous to try to enter."
But before Saturday’s fire there was a flood.
As News 12 previously reported, flooding in the basement of the building forced the co-op residents out in September 2023.
Nassau County helped house some of them at the A. Holly Patterson Extended Care facility in Uniondale.
Carolina Malagon and her parents were able to stay with family.
"For a lot of the residents, they were hoping that once it was fixed, they could come back cause for a lot of people, this is their investment. This is their life's last investment,” she said.
Residents say they haven't heard much from the property managers, Woods and Ruff Global.
News 12 tried multiple times to reach them by phone, but the number is no longer in service. News 12 also emailed the company and still have not received a response back.
"We need help,” said McLaughlin. "We're senior citizens. We don't have nowhere to go, you know. Where we did have to go has done burned down now."
Nassau County still has a lawsuit filed against the property managers claiming they ignored multiple requests to make necessary repairs.
As of now, many residents are still paying mortgages on a place they can’t live in.
