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Calverton van fire sends elderly man to hospital

BARBARALLEN KOCH PHOTO | A van caught fire at the Gulf gas station on Route 25 in Calverton Friday.

An elderly man was hospitalized following a van fire at a gas station in Calverton Friday afternoon, Riverhead Police said.

The van caught fire in the parking lot of the Gulf gas station on Route 25, just next door to the Riverhead Charter School. Riverhead firefighters were on the scene and they quickly extinguished the flames.

Police said the fire appeared to be electrical in nature.

The driver of the van was taken to Peconic Bay Medical Center for treatment of minor injuries, police said. No passengers were in the van.

Dawn Williams of Coram, who was leaving a Mother’s Day tea event at the charter school, said she went back to the school to pick up her daughter, Avah, after seeing the flames.

“When I saw them build that gas station I said ‘Who would build that gas station there,'” she said. “[The fire] scared me.”

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