Dozens of residents displaced following Deer Park apartment complex fire
The fire spread through at least ten apartments
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Dozens of residents are displaced Sunday after a fire burned through the Maple Crest Garden Apartments complex in Deer Park Sunday afternoon.
The fire spread to at least 10 apartments. The Red Cross says residents from 56 apartments in the complex are going to be displaced for the next few days until fire officials can make sure everything is safe.
“I have a 6-year-old who knows everything. And how am I going to explain that we're not coming home tonight?” said resident Jennifer Didomenico. “It's just, it's hard.”
Fire officials received the call around 12 p.m. When first responders arrived, they say there were significant fire conditions. It took 75 firefighters from eight different departments about 40 minutes to put out the flames.
“I was home today, and I swore it was a barbecue,” said resident Jade Michaels. “And then all of a sudden, all hell broke loose.”
A cause of the fire was not immediately known as of Sunday evening.
“The fire spread pretty quickly,” said Deer Park Fire Department Chief Robert Macaluso. “We had multiple hand lines in operation within minutes of being on scene. That helped us extinguish the fire.”
Macaluso says one firefighter was taken to Stonybrook Hospital, but no residents were injured.
Residents say there was another fire in the same building just a few years ago. Even though not all apartments sustained fire damages, some people were displaced for two weeks.
They say they’re hope for a quicker timeline this time around.
