Massive fire destroys dozens of homes in Breezy Point
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By KATHY CARVAJAL, Web Producer -
MYFOXNY.COM -
A massive fire in Breezy Point, Queens, destroyed at least 80 homes Monday and Tuesday.
More than 190 firefighters responded to the scene in a flooded Zone A area. They set up a staging area at Oceanside Avenue and Irving Walk to fight the widespread fire.
Pockets of fire still smoldered more than 12 hours later.
The home of Rep. Bob Turner, R-New York, was among those destroyed in the fire. He said he and his family are safe.
Resident Tommy Hickey said: "It's the worst nightmare. It's terrible."
"We watched the whole place go up in flames. It was hell night. It was the devil's night," Thomas Reicherter said, according to the AP.
The flames broke out at about 11:03 p.m. Monday in an area flooded by superstorm Sandy and quickly spread, FDNY officials said.
About 25 people had to be rescued from an upstairs apartment in one of the buildings that burned. Firefighters used a boats to make rescues.
"On the Rockaway Peninsula, I walked through the part of Breezy Point that was absolutely devastated by the wind-fed fast moving fires that took out more than 80 homes last night," Mayor Mike Bloomberg said. "To describe it, it's looking like pictures we've seen at the end of World War II is not over stating it... the area was completely leveled... chimneys and foundations were all that was left in many of these homes."
Fox 5 News reporter Stacey Delikat reported that firefighters faced several obstacles including low water pressure following the storm and high winds that made it difficult to knock down the flames.
The fire reached a sixth alarm at about 3:35 a.m. Tuesday. There were at least two minor injuries, but no serious injuries reported.
The cause of the fire remained unknown, but Fire Commissioner Sal Cassano said fire officials seemed to zero in on the fire's origin.
Breezy Point is a private community that sits on the western tip of the Rockaway Peninsula that juts into the Atlantic Ocean.
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