Fire breaks out at Hempstead courthouse building

A fire late Tuesday afternoon in an electrical area beneath the Nassau County District Court in Hempstead, sent thick, billowing smoke into the air as court business was coming to a close for the day.

No injuries were reported from the fire, which a court officer told Newsday broke out shortly after a "pop" sound was heard inside the Main Street courthouse shortly after 5 p.m.

Firefighters responded and rescued three people trapped inside a pair of elevators that lost power, Michael Uttaro, Nassau County's chief fire marshal, told Newsday late Tuesday.

The cause of the fire, Uttaro said, was deemed "an accidental electrical fire involving the failure of equipment" inside an underground PSEG Long Island "electrical vault."

"There wasn’t a need for investigation because there wasn’t anything suspicious about it," he added.

Neither flame nor smoke entered the courthouse. However, Uttaro said both caused "scorching and some damage" to the exterior. The building remained without power late Tuesday after PSEG Long Island cut electricity to the equipment that failed.

"Our understanding is that this vault powered more than just the building that we thought was affected," Uttaro said. "By cutting power to this vault, they’ve also cut power to a decent area of the Village of Hempstead."

Among those impacted by the power outage was Jason Yessoufou, who, draped in a Knicks barber cape, had just sat down for a haircut at Genesis Barber Shop on Main Street when the power went out.

"I was like, ‘ahh,’" Yessoufou said, worried about having his hair left mid-cut.

Barber Pete Johnson decided to take the business to the sidewalk.

"We are just trying to take care of the last people," Johnson, the barber, said out front of the shop.

A trio of power outages reported in the blocks surrounding the courthouse on the PSEG Long power outage map indicated more than 1,000 customers effected. The utility provider's outage map did not provide an estimated time for when power would be restored. The cause of the outages was pending investigation.

Around 150 firefighters from 13 departments responded to the 5:07 p.m. alarm at the courthouse on Main Street, Uttaro's office said in a news release.

After turning from black to white, the smoke appeared quelled about 6:25 p.m. as the rain picked up. The fire was out after about 90 minutes, Uttaro's office said.