Pearl River Firefighter Suffers Minor Injury Putting Out Central Ave. Fire

Volunteers with the Pearl River Fire Department quickly put out a fire in McNamara Heating and Air Conditioning at 83 E. Central Ave. in Pearl River Monday.

Pearl River Fire Chief Ken Smellegar said the 911 call came in shortly after 8 p.m. and firefighters were on the scene within two minutes.

The owner of McNamara Heating and Air Conditioning, Bob McNamara, said the owner of Raffaele's Pizzeria, Ron Fatigate, called in the fire.

"Our neighbor was a great help," McNamara said. "Ron saw it smoldering and called it in."

McNamara said his business is open today, just with that one part of the store closed off. 

"There is damage inside and outside, damage just from trying to find where the fire was," McNamara said. "It could have been worse. The firefighters did a good job. They got over and did what they had to do and contained it.

"We're in clean-up mode now."

Pearl River firefighter William Harris twisted his knee on while helping put the fire out and was taken from the scene by Pearl River Ambulance.

"He had a minor injury to his knee," Smellegar said. "He went for an x-ray."

Volunteers with the Orangeburg Fire Department also helped on the scene and Smellegar said he asked Montvale to send a pumper to Excelsior Fire Engine Company to stand by.

Smellegar said that Orangetown Fire Inspector Douglas Sampath is investigating. The fire was inside the wall on the right side of the building.

"It looks like it started on the outside and it was actually inside the wall," Smellegar said. "We had to open up the wall to extinguish it. We had it out in 20-25 minutes."