Electrical Vault Fire at Hempstead Courthouse Knocks Out Power to Surrounding Area
About 150 firefighters from 13 departments responded; three people were rescued from stalled elevators.
An accidental electrical fire broke out Tuesday afternoon beneath the Nassau County District Court building on Main Street in Hempstead, sending thick black smoke into the air, knocking out power to portions of the Village of Hempstead, and prompting the rescue of three people trapped in stalled elevators.
The alarm was reported at 5:07 p.m. after a court officer heard a loud pop inside the building, fire officials said. Roughly 150 firefighters from 13 departments responded, according to Nassau County Chief Fire Marshal Michael Uttaro.
Uttaro said investigators determined the blaze originated in an underground PSEG Long Island electrical vault on the building's exterior and classified it as accidental equipment failure, adding there was nothing suspicious about the cause. Firefighters rescued three people from two elevators that lost power when the fire began, Uttaro said.
Neither fire nor smoke entered the courthouse itself, though the exterior sustained scorching and some damage, Uttaro said. PSEG Long Island cut electricity to the failed equipment to control the situation, a step that also cut power to a wider area of the village. More than 1,000 customers were affected, according to the utility's outage map; no restoration time had been provided as of late Tuesday.
The smoke shifted from black to white around 6:25 p.m. as rain moved in, and the fire was declared out roughly 90 minutes after it started, fire officials said. Court business had been winding down for the day when the fire broke out, and no injuries were reported.