Long Island man with hoarding tendencies missing after house fire as authorities fear for his life

An apparent elderly man with “hoarding tendencies” is missing after a large fire at his Long Island home early Monday.Nassau County Fire Marshal Michael Uttaro said he is “pretty much 90% sure” that the man, believed to be elderly, did not make it out of the charred scene at 204 Sunset Ave.in Island Park.“We are right now on the scene, taking the house apart, and we’re basically going through in a very slow and methodical way so that we can locate and identify this missing occupant and recover him for his family,” he told The Post of the firefighters’ “primary goal.”The residence caught fire just before 2 a.m., and about 120 firefighters from Island Park and nine surrounding towns battled the flames for an hour and a half before getting it under control.The fire marshal said there was concern about a house next door catching fire during the inferno, too.Uttaro said the missing man’s home had “a lot of extra stuff” rescue workers had to maneuver around.

It proved an extra challenge in addition to heavy rains and winds from a thunderstorm at the time, he said.“There was definitely some hoarding tendencies.There was a lot of different miscellaneous debris and junk all over the outside of the house,” Uttaro said.

“[The missing man] was a collector, so there was a lot of extra stuff that the fire department had to work through, too.”The man’s wife was not home during the fire.Uttaro said she is undergoing “some type of medical care.”Neighbors told Uttaro that the missing man was known for keeping cats, although none has been found.“No cats rescued, no cats found yet.

But is something we’re mindful of, and Town of Hempstead Animal Control is aware, and they’ll be called to the scene if when we do find any living or deceased animals,” he said. “We saw there were obvious signs that maybe he was feeding some animals, neighbors say that he regularly fed a whole bunch of cats and stuff like that.”The fire’s cause, which...