Crews work to mitigate damage after fire in Flower Hill office building 

One day after a fire blazed through an office building in Flower Hill on Saturday evening, firefighters and emergency crews on Sunday worked on mitigating damage within the burnt building as nearby businesses returned to normal.

Fire officials were continuing to investigate what sparked the fire at 1025 Northern Blvd. early Saturday evening, according to Ronald Collura Jr., first assistant fire chief with the Roslyn Rescue Fire Department.

Around 1:30 p.m. on Sunday, fire crews from departments including Roslyn Rescue and Roslyn Highlands Fire Co. arrived to hook up fire hoses and use a cherry picker to spray water through the top of the partially collapsed roof down into the rest of the building. Crews were cooling off hot spots still smoldering from the fire, according to Collura, who worked at the scene Saturday evening for more than 12 hours.

“With the size of the building, there were some difficult spots that we really couldn’t get to,” Collura said. “You had partial or most of the whole roof collapsed in, but with the thick membrane on some of the roof that was still intact, it was hard to get to some of those hot spots underneath.”

Bystanders and pedestrians walking by the burnt office building between 12 p.m. and 1:30 p.m. Sunday afternoon took pictures of the scene. Yellow police tape sealed off entrances to the structure, which housed businesses such as dental and medical practices.

Louis Tiglias, who owns the Flower Hill building, also was at the site Sunday.

“My thoughts are with all my tenants right now,” Tiglias told Newsday, adding that emergency officials told him that the second and third floors had collapsed, and the ground floor and the basement of the building were drenched with water.

Tiglias said he was waiting on engineers and local authorities to assess the situation to see when it was safe to reenter the building and retrieve some of the records for businesses that operated in the building.

Some firefighters received minor scrapes and bruises while battling the blaze, which at one point had flames shooting out from the top of the roof and out of windows, Collura said. Three firefighters who suffered minor injuries were taken to hospitals where they were treated and released, Nassau County police said.

Collura noted that it appeared the fire was “well advanced,” meaning it probably had started well before fire crews arrived Saturday evening.

“We didn’t get the call until about 6 o’clock last night, so this thing was really cooking by the time we got here,” Collura said.

Traffic was blocked on Port Washington Boulevard and Northern Boulevard during the fire Saturday, but the day after, businesses reported that things had returned to normal.

At nearby furniture retail store Roche Bobois Paris, Majed Qanaah, showroom manager, said they were forced to close slightly early after officials instructed them to evacuate for their safety.

“We left right away, as soon as they came here, we left. It was about close to our closing time, anyway,” said Qanaah. “We opened late today, but everything is fine now.”

 With Steve Langford