STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — Longtime Staten Island conservationist Ellen Pratt, whose decades of advocacy helped preserve some of the borough’s most treasured parks and natural spaces, was displaced after a fire severely damaged her Annadale home on Sunday afternoon.
The fire was reported at about 11:09 a.m. on the top floor of a two-story home on the 300 block of Harold Avenue, according to the FDNY. About 80 firefighters and EMS personnel responded to the scene, and the blaze was brought under control in roughly an hour.
Pratt, a prominent environmental advocate and 1987 Staten Island Advance Woman of Achievement, has spent more than five decades working to preserve Staten Island’s parks and open spaces. She has been credited with helping lead preservation efforts for the Mount Loretto Unique Area, St. Francis Woodlands and Kingfisher Pond Park.
“Everybody on Staten Island owes Ellen a debt of gratitude,” said Clifford Hagen, a fellow environmental advocate who has known Pratt for about 35 years. “There are spots from Huguenot to New Brighton that Ellen has been the engine behind those efforts.”…