Three Families
Homeless in Storm's
Wake
Staten Island
Advance 3/1/10
The heavy snow that
blanketed Staten
Island last weekend
wrecked havoc on a
New Brighton block,
knocking trees into
a power transformer
and sparking a fire
that left three
families homeless.
The blaze happened
at about 3:45 a.m.
Friday at 187 York
Ave. The snowfall
had weighed down an
already low-hanging
cluster of trees on
York Avenue, sending
them crashing into a
utility pole in
front of 191 York.
That snapped the
pole and sent the
transformer
plummeting,
neighbors said. "It
hit my house and
bounced off of my
house and onto my
husband's truck,"
said Claudia Beadle,
who lives at 191
York.
The downed, sparking
wires hit the side
of 187 York,
neighbors recalled,
lighting part of the
three-family house
ablaze.
Fire officials said
the blaze damaged
the first and second
floors of the
building, and
firefighters needed
to remove three
people from inside.
No one was injured
in the blaze, an
FDNY spokesman said.
Earlier today, the
windows of the house
remained boarded up,
and the smell of
wet, charred wood
still permeated the
air.
LOST EVERYTHING
Outside, Oakwood
resident Susan
Melendez waited
while her
mother-in-law, Luisa
Pineiro, 58, and
father-in-law, Julio
Melendez, 65,
surveyed the damage
to the house. The
couple live in a
basement apartment
and, Ms. Melendez
said, lost
everything in the
blaze.
"I'm actually
waiting for the Red
Cross," she said,
adding that she had
just taken the older
couple to the FDNY's
Metrotech Center in
Brooklyn, then the
Red Cross' office in
Manhattan, and was
now awaiting the
arrival of a Red
Cross worker.
"It's a terrible
situation," she
said. "They don't
have anything. They
have the jackets on
their backs."
For now, she said,
they're staying with
her in Oakwood.
Several neighbors
said they'd called
in multiple
complaints to 311
and city agencies
about the
low-hanging trees,
but to no avail.
"These trees have
been hanging here
for years," said
Gilbert Hyman, who
lives up the block
at 181 York Ave.
Added Ms. Beadle,
"That could have
been avoided."
