QUICK INTERVENTION SAVES LOCAL RESTAURANT FROM FIRE
By Jason S.
December 5, 2009
Late Friday evening the Clarkstown Police Dept received a 911 call for heavy smoke coming from the roof of the Pizza Hut restaurant on Rt. 59 in Nanuet. At 11:16pm Nanuet FD was alerted to respond to the incident. Upon signing in service, Asst Chief AJ Knapp (8-2) was notified that police officers on scene were already reporting heavy smoke coming from the roof of the business.
As he arrived on scene less than 3 minutes later, Asst Chief AJ Knapp (8-2) confirmed the heavy smoke and immediately requested a FAST (Firefighter Assist and Search Team) team from neighboring West Nyack FD (Dept 24). When first arriving 8-EQ got to the scene, crews led by Captain Todd Giraudin (8-4) headed to the roof to investigate the source of the fire.
As 8-Tower and neighboring Pearl River FD's (Dept 12) 12-Tower arrived on scene to provide additional means of egress to the roof, Captain Giraudin (8-4) and Asst Chief Chris Koester (8-3) discovered that the source of the fire was an HVAC unit on the roof. Because fire had extended into the duct work below, crews from 2nd due 8-1500, after securing water supply from a hydrant, were sent into the restaurant to remove the drop ceiling and investigate for fire spread below.
The quick work of units on the roof and inside the restaurant saved the business from major fire spread or damage. "If the call had been a few hours later in the night, we might not have been so lucky" said Asst Chief Knapp "they were lucky the manager was still there to call."
The South Spring Valley FD (Dept 25) was called to standby at Nanuet's Prospect St firehouse (8-100) in case of any other emergencies during the incident.
All units returned to normal service a little more than an hour later at 12:32am.
Police and Fire Department audio from this incident available on the Audio/Video page.
