Glen Cove Hospital fire caused by generator, officials say

Combustible materials from generator exhaust led to a fire Saturday at Glen Cove Hospital that temporarily shut down the emergency room, Nassau County fire officials said Sunday.

"The fire was the result of a normal generator test," said Nassau County Assistant Chief Fire Marshal James Hickman on Sunday in an email. "The exhaust from the generator over time ignited some nearby combustibles, ... The fire is classified as accidental."

Seven fire departments and nearly 100 firefighters responded to the hospital's emergency department, at 101 St. Andrews Lane in Glen Cove, after the fire was reported at 11:04 a.m., said Philip Grella Jr., chief of the Glen Cove Volunteer Fire Department, on Saturday.

"It looks like it was in the pipe insulation that caught the fire between the wall in the first floor of the ER ... and extended into the X-ray room," Grella said in an interview outside the hospital. "The hospital was very smoky."

There were no reports of injuries.

Miriam Sholder, a hospital spokeswoman, said seven patients were relocated to other parts of the hospital during the response. The hospital did not accept emergency department patients after the fire occurred but resumed normal operations just before 4 p.m. Saturday, Sholder said. 

Grella said the fire was brought under control in about an hour.

In early August, firefighters responded to the 235-bed hospital after routine generator testing resulted in a fire that spread into the ceiling of the emergency room, Newsday reported.

Police on Saturday stopped vehicle traffic along Walnut Road during the response. Firefighters extended the ladders of multiple trucks to the first-floor roof near the ambulatory entrance of the hospital.