Firefighters Battle Car Fire On LIE

RONKONKOMA, NY - Firefighters battled a car fire on the Long Island Expressway in Ronkonkoma last Wednesday morning.

At 8 a.m. on Sept. 20, Eaton’s Neck Fire Department’s Engine 7 was traveling east on the LIE between exits 60 and 61 in Ronkonkoma en route to the Suffolk County Fire Academy in Yaphank for routine pump testing.

With traffic backing up, a car fire was seen on the right side of the road.

With the car’s engine compartment ablaze and heavy, black smoke obscuring the right-hand lanes of the roadway, officers from the Suffolk County Police Department, who were already on scene and had the roadway partially blocked, motioned the apparatus over to the side of the road.

The Eaton’s Neck crew stopped just past the burning vehicle and without delay, began to attack the fire using water from the onboard booster tank.

On the nozzle and stretching the attack hoseline was firefighter Richard Baer, 81, with Ex-Chief and Engineering Officer Arthur Angst, 81, operating the pump.

Providing backup was 77-year-old Fire Police Lt. Richard Deters.

With the fire knocked down, the Ronkonkoma Fire Department arrived shortly thereafter and overhauled the vehicle.

The Ronkonkoma Fire Department crews repacked the firehose on Engine 7, which continued to the fire academy.

No injuries were reported.

Info and photos courtesy of Eaton's Neck Fire Department First Assistant Chief Steven Zulawski