More Than 20 Dogs Rescued From House Fire in West Hempstead

A concerned dog owner in West Hempstead who was walking his dog early Tuesday morning helped save the life of his neighbor and 22 pooches when a fire broke out their home. 

The man had noticed smoke coming from the second window of the home on Oakford Street around 7 a.m. on Jan. 11 and started banging on the doors and windows to awake the residents. The received a call soon after and responded to the scene swiftly.  

"I looked out my window and saw the flashing lights," said a woman who lived just a couple houses away from the home that had caught on fire. She preferred to remain anonymous. When she saw the firefighters carrying out several dogs from the home, she too came to her neighbor's aid, allowing him to use her garage to keep some of the animals out of the cold.

"I had five dogs in there," she said. "It was the most amazing site. The firefighters were giving oxygen to the dogs."

There were no reported injuries and all the dogs were rescued from the home, except an older canine, which sources say died of natural causes unrelated to the fire.

Lakeview Fire Chief Mike Joyce said he responded with about 20 firefighters, one engine, one ladder and an ambulance. 

"The fire had traveled up the wall, so we opened up the wall and it was burning inside," Joyce said. The Nassau County Fire Marshal is still investigating the cause of the fire, although a neighbor said that she heard it originated in the kitchen on the first floor.

"We had the fire under control within about 20 minutes and we were there for about an hour," he said. 

The Town of Hempstead Animal Control also responded to the scene and transported the dogs to the owner's veterinarian in Garden City, where they still remained this evening, according to a spokesperson for the Town.

Susan Trenkle-Pokalsky, the press secretary for the Town of Hempstead, said the owner received a number of appearance tickets from the town for violations. 

"He’s a breeder," she said. "Thirteen of the dogs were puppies."

However, she explained that it is illegal for a resident to house more than three dogs in his home without having a special permit. According to Trenkle-Pokalsky, the man would have to go through the Board of Zoning Appeals to attain this license and be able to continue to keep all the animals in his home. 

Currently, his residence has been boarded. The fire caused substantial damage to the home and the heat and power has been turned off. He also received summonses for "separation of living quarters."

"There was a stove on the second floor so it was essentially an apartment," Trenkly-Pokalsky said, adding that he also had structural violations.  "He had a pool, a deck and a shed without a permit."

She was unable to say whether or not the dogs would return to their owner as he awaits his appearances and release the name of their owner. Attempts to contact the owner of the home were unsuccessful as the home remained vacant on Tuesday evening. 

A neighbor of the owner said she hopes he is able to keep the animals, adding, "He lives for his dogs."

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