Shortly after 4 a.m. last Wednesday, a Garden City Police Officer, smelling smoke in the air, discovered a fire raging in the upper floor of a wing of the abandoned St. Mary's school building. His immediate notification resulted in the quick response of the fire department.

Lt. Lou Mira, arriving first on the scene, radioed confirmation that it was a working building fire. Assistant Chief Tom Foley arrived next and upon viewing the situation ordered an immediate second alarm for equipment.

Chief Larry Nedelka arrived and assumed command of the fireground. As the initial equipment was being set-up, Chief Nedelka put out a third alarm. "In a situation like this one," commented Chief Nedelka, "you want to be sure that you have adequate equipment to apply water, and, most critical, an adequate supply of water."

Aerial water towers from Uniondale, Franklin Square, and Garden City Park were strategically placed around the building to be sure the outside attack of the fire would be effective.

Chief Nedelka then ordered additional pumpers to be placed on Hilton and Franklin Avenues at Fourth and Fifth Streets. These pumpers then tapped into the hydrants on those water mains and stretched hose lines up to supply the fire apparatus at the school building. Westbury and West Hempstead Fire Departments, along with pumpers from Garden City, took care of this effort.

Assistant Chief Foley was then sent in to see what, if any, efforts could be taken inside the building to put out the fire.

"There were two objectives going on," said Chief Nedelka, "first, knock down and extinguish the fire, and second, stop it from breaching the main building."

Once the information was provided to the Command Post, the decision was made to advance hose lines from inside to attack the fire. As soon as the hose and truck teams were in place, the master water streamlines were shut down. Assistant Chiefs Foley and Ed Moran moved their lines and truck teams forward and began to put out the fire.

Noticing a media helicopter hovering overhead, and needing additional information regarding the fire, Chief Nedelka contacted the assignment desk of Channel 2 News and asked them to relay his questions to the helicopter and then repeat back the reporter's responses. "At one point," noted Nedelka, "the helicopter was in the best vantage point to see where the fire was and what other areas were being affected."

The information received from the helicopter was considered valuable by the chief and helped him direct firefighters to areas where the fire was not visible from the ground level.

Approximately two hours after the alarm, the situation was labeled, "under control."

"The residents of Garden City should be very proud, as am I, of the efforts of their firefighters," concluded Nedelka. "By preventing the fire from breaching the main building, we kept major damage from becoming catastrophic damage. It was truly a job well done by all."

Nine volunteer fire departments, Nassau County Police Ambulances and the Mineola Volunteer Ambulance Corps all provided equipment to the fire scene. Over 130 firefighters were also put into service.

The fire is under investigation by the Nassau County Fire Marshal and the Garden City fire officials. Anyone with any information about the fire can contact the county fire marshal at 742-3219 or the Nassau County Police Arson/Bomb Squad at 573-5550. All information will be held strictly confidential.