New Square +Sukkah Fire First Night Of Yom Tov+
New Square +Sukkah Fire First Night Of Yom Tov+ At midnight on the first night of Yom Tov a 1 alarm fire broke out in New Square in a private dwelling at 27 Truman Ave.
posted by VOS IZ NEIAS @ 10/19/2005 08:28:00 PM
2 Comments:
At 10:30 PM,
Anonymous said…
NEW SQUARE — A village family was displaced yesterday after a sukkah fire extended into their home.
The fire began in the sukkah, a temporary outdoor structure built to celebrate the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, on the back deck of 27 Truman Ave. just after midnight, Hillcrest Fire Chief Tim Wren said.
Wren said he thought the fire was started by an unattended candle in the sukkah. The county sheriff's arson unit is investigating to rule out any suspicious causes.
"They really have to maintain a constant presence with these candles," Wren said. "I don't think they were in it at the time."
The fire extended from the hut up the outside of the two-story home, along the roof line and into the attic, he said. There also was fire damage in the first-floor kitchen.
"It was going pretty good when we got there. There is some structural damage," Wren said. "It's probably going to be a little bit of time before they get back in there."
The family is staying with relatives, he said.
The fire was extinguished in about 35 minutes by approximately 45 volunteer firefighters from the Hillcrest, New City and Spring Valley fire departments.
One Hillcrest firefighter received four stitches on his cheek after being cut by a piece of glass, Wren said.
At 10:38 PM,
Anonymous said…
Man collapses — and is saved — in New Square temple
(Original publication: October 18, 2005)
NEW SQUARE — Villagers are celebrating a holiday miracle this Sukkot after a man who collapsed during service was revived by paramedics in the congregation.
The 62-year-old man was inside Congregation of New Square synagogue about noon Saturday when, during a reading of the Torah, he collapsed before more than 2,000 worshippers — many of them children.
But luck — or providence, as witnesses would say later — prevailed.
Several members of Hatzoloh Volunteer Ambulance Corps were among those assembled, including longtime member Ruben Austerlitz, who was sitting directly behind the stricken man.
"I just saw the way his head fell back," Austerlitz said yesterday outside Hatzoloh's Jefferson Avenue quarters. "I jumped over, and I laid him down."
"I started mouth-to-mouth. Checked his pulse. No pulse," he said.
While the worshippers looked on in shock, other corps volunteers rushed to aid the victim, continuing to give him cardiopulmonary resuscitation as well as oxygen.
In the meantime, others had run to Hatzoloh, which is across from the synagogue, and returned with a portable defibrillator. They immediately put it to use.
After some tense moments, the man began to breathe on his own and was loaded into an ambulance and rushed to Good Samaritan Hospital in Suffern.
The ambulance driver, Aron Kaff, said the man's salvation was miraculous.
"The guy passed out. Actually, the guy died," said Kaff, who also is the village's coordinator.
Joseph Zupnik, another volunteer who is a professional emergency medical technician, praised the Hatzoloh crew's response.
"This is a textbook example of early CPR and early defibrillation to save people's lives," said Zupnik, a Pomona resident who is an American Heart Association CPR instructor.
Kaff said he was grateful to the town of Ramapo police for keeping intersections clear so the drive could be made as quickly as possible.
God allowed the man to be saved, he said.
"Can you imagine? Two thousand people in the building standing around, little kids ... it was emotional," he said.
Villagers had the event on their minds yesterday as they bustled to perform last-minute chores in preparation for Sukkot, the seven-day celebration that began at sundown last night.
"It's the talk of the town," said Joseph Tambor, another volunteer. "All the children are talking about it because they saw it happen."
Today, the patient is recovering at Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan following a cardiac procedure performed there, Kaff said.
The town and its Police Department would not release the man's name yesterday.
The defibrillator worked so well that several people in the community have approached Kaff for instruction on its use.
"We're going to make groups, and whoever wants to join it can come," he said.
The classes will be taught by Isaac Deutsch, another Hatzoloh volunteer who helped save the victim.
"I'm trying to say like how important it is for big buildings, commercial buildings, to have this," Kaff said. "The fact is, it works. It really works."
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