Prospect Avenue [3-23-17]

At 18:53 hours on the evening of Thursday, March 23rd, 2017 the Westbury Fire Department was dispatched to a reported structure fire at 701 Prospect Avenue off Brush Hollow Road. As fire department units began responding to the scene they were advised by the Westbury dispatcher that multiple calls were being received reporting black smoke in the building and that police were on scene reporting a working fire. When firefighters arrived on scene and made their way into the building to investigate they found that they had a confirmed fire on the third floor of a three story mixed occupancy. Westbury Chief John Bartunek transmitted the working fire and immediately asked that the run be upgraded to a second alarm procedure. Fortunately for firefighters the sprinkler system helped to get a hold on the fire. Firefighters went on to use a standpipe operation and utilized one hand line to extinguish the remainder of the fire. At the height of the operation firefighters were up against the hundreds of people attempting to the make their way out of the building. At least three civilians were injured because of the fire; however, all injuries were considered non-life threatening. The cause of the fire is under investigation and all fire department units were under the command of Westbury Chief of Department John Bartunek [9601].