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Emerson man, 73, burned in house fire ignited after storm

CVP ON THE SPOT: A 73-year-old Emerson man sustained burns on both hands when he tried to use buckets of water to douse a fire apparently sparked by a generator during a neighborhood blackout caused by tonight’s storm.

Photo Credit: Cliffview Pilot File Photo
Photo Credit: Cliffview Pilot

A neighbor pulled Nicholas Cestaro out of the Summer Court house soon after the fire erupted around 8 p.m.

“I told him, ‘You gotta get out of here’,” said the resident, who didn’t want to be identified.

Although there were some anxious moments for others on the block, Cestaro and his wife’s cat, believed lost in the fire, was found.

Cestaro was alert and talking with emergency medical workers through an oxygen mask in the back of an ambulance that later took him to an area hospital.

Meanwhile, firefighters from Emerson, Hillsdale and Westwood battled the blaze, which produced heavy smoke — and left a Westwood smoke-eater with an undetermined injury.

Neighbors told CLIFFVIEW PILOT that power outages have been frequent on Summer Court and adjacent Summer Street.

The power cut out tonight around 6:45, they said.

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