7 New Hyde Park firefighters hurt

It was a tough 36 hours for the New Hyde Park Fire Department, during which five volunteers were injured at a house fire Friday and two more injured in a fatal blaze Sunday.

One of the firefighters injured Friday, identified as a 20-year-old whose name was not disclosed, was taken to Nassau University Medical Center in East Meadow in critical condition, suffering from smoke inhalation. After undergoing treatment in a hyperbaric chamber, he was in stable condition Monday, fire officials said.

Three other firefighters injured in that basement fire on Sixth Avenue were taken to Winthrop-University Hospital in Mineola. All three were treated and released, officials said. A fifth was taken to North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, the official said. It was unclear if that firefighter was still hospitalized.

The fire Sunday, at a house on Seventh Avenue, left a 79-year-old man dead and injured two other New Hyde Park firefighters, one of whom suffered burns, officials said.

That fire was reported about 1 a.m. The fire Friday happened at 1 p.m.

About 125 firefighters and 15 trucks from seven departments responded to the house fire Sunday, officials said.

Neither fire is considered suspicious, though the causes of each have not been released. The identity of the man killed in the fire Sunday has not been released.

New Hyde Park fire Chief John Willers could not be reached for comment Monday and calls to the firehouse went unanswered.

Friday, all the firefighters who were injured were in the home's basement when, Willers said that afternoon, "the fire at one point flared up on them."

Some of those injured were able to escape up the stairs and one made it out through a basement window. Another had to be rescued from the basement, a fire official said.

Two occupants, an older man and his home health aide, had been in the single-family Cape Cod-style house when they noticed the fire in the basement. They called 911 and got out of the house without injury.

Nassau County Fire Marshal's Office spokesman Vincent McManus said responding to two major fires in such a short time shows that firefighters never know what they're walking into.

"You have five guys hurt Friday, then two more Sunday," McManus said. "It happens. And you never know when it's going to happen."