Double house fire displaces 10 people in Hempstead

I actually was coming home and spent around on my doorstep and heard the pop and seen the fire blow up in the yard. Andre Baxter said his only thought was saving the neighbors when he saw the fire break out on Derea Place in Hempstead. And I'm the one called that came screaming around the corner and banging on people's doors, and I went in the neighbor's yard and grabbed his water hose and started spraying it on the house. He says the fire grew too quickly for the hose to put it out, but his actions may have saved lives. My son-in-law was cooking in the kitchen. And he said he looked out in the window and he said, oh, he's seeing a fire in the backyard. And then he said he went to go water on the fire and it exploded. Elvira Brown says she's one of seven people who live in the house. But then they said fire, fire. So they said, where's everybody? Get your mother out of here, too, because I just went to go lay it out. Officials say the fire started in the back of the house and was so large it spread to the home next door. The fire department then had to call for backup to deal with two house fires at the same time. Fire officials say it took 100 firefighters about 45 minutes to finally knock out the flames. But both houses are uninhabitable. I know there's got to be a mess in there because I left everything in there. Cell phone, everything. Everything. We all lost a lot of stuff up in that house. Officials say there are 10 people total who are displaced. Five adults and two kids in the first house and three adults in the second. Thankfully, no one who lived in the houses got hurt. The two firefighters were injured and one of them was taken to the hospital with a head injury. In Hempstead, Nassau County, Jenna Rae Gartner, News 12.