by PHIL HELSEL and JOHN ANNESE
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- A pair of apartment fires in West Brighton and Westerleigh yesterday morning sent four firefighters and two civilians to area hospitals with a variety of minor injuries.
Early yesterday morning, an FDNY captain and three firefighters suffered cuts and neck sprains when a large piece of Sheetrock fell on them as they battled a West Brighton apartment fire, officials said.
The blaze broke out just after midnight, in apartment 2-G of 286 Myrtle Avenue, on the corner of Myrtle and Clove Road.
Firefighters rescued the apartment's sole female occupant. She was not injured and refused to be transported to a hospital.
The fire captain and three firefighters were taken to Richmond University Medical Center.
The cause of the fire has not yet been determined, but FDNY sources said that the apartment is considered to be a total loss, and that both the tenant and two others who live on the same floor were left temporarily homeless.
The American Red Cross in Greater New York is providing assistance.
The second blaze happened at about 6 p.m. last night, after some food on the stove of a fifth-floor apartment kitchen in 231 Westwood Ave. in Westerleigh ignited, enveloping the kitchen in flames.
The apartment's occupant, who did not give her name, said she was out walking her dog at the time, and when she returned, she was greeted with plumes of thick smoke.
Firefighters managed to rescue her cat and pet guinea pigs, but one of her two birds died in the blaze, officials said. FDNY officials weren't clear if the second bird died or flew to safety.
Firefighters also had to evacuate one of the woman's homebound neighbors, Eileen Hamilton, 52, who said she suffers from degenerative spine disease.
"I was laying on my bed with my dog," Mrs. Hamilton said, sitting in a motorized wheelchair while wrapped in a red blanket, pausing occasionally to take a breath from an oxygen mask.
When the smoke started pouring in, she said she got out bed, clutching her bichon frise, Hyper, close to her, and headed out of her apartment. "I had to walk by holding onto the wall."
Responding firefighters then guided her to safety, she said.
Both women were taken to Richmond University Medical Center for evaluation.
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