Chaptzem Blog!      

Police: NY school bus refitted as oven turned out Passover bread

A full-size yellow school bus that had been converted into an oven, complete with smokestack, exhaust fans and working fire, was discovered by police after a neighbor said he smelled smoke.

The bus, in the backyard of a residence owned by a Hasidic Jewish congregation, was turning out flat, round loaves of matzo bread for Passover, which begins next Monday at sundown, said Sgt. Lou Scorziello of the Spring Valley police.

He said police found the bus bakery early Friday morning.

"It was up and running," he said. "Smoke was coming from the stack and there was a working fire."

He said the fire was fueled by gas from lines illegally extended from the house and none of the necessary permits had been obtained.

"There certainly was the potential for an explosion," Scorziello said.

He said the bus oven may have been in use for two or three years, but possibly just seasonally.

"The back door, the emergency door I guess you'd call it, that was the oven door," he said. "All the seats had been removed and the whole inside was an oven."

It was unmanned when police found it, but Aaron Winternitz, a resident of the house, eventually came outside. No charges were filed or tickets issued, the sergeant said, but the matter was referred to the local fire and building departments for violations.

A call to the house on Monday morning was answered by a woman who said neither Winternitz nor his wife were home and refused to give her own name.

Scorziello said records showed the house was owned by Congregation Mivtzar Hatorah, which is listed at the same address. The neighborhood is heavily Hasidic.

Link to video

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny--busoven0326mar26,0,2276764.story?coll=ny-region-apnewyork