Mike Breen’s home on Long Island has been destroyed by a massive fire.
The Manhasset-Lakeville Fire Department confirmed to TMZ that they “encountered a fully involved house fire” when they arrived on the scene early Sunday morning at 4:03 a.m.
Breen, the longtime Knicks and ESPN NBA play-by-play voice, and his family lost all of their possessions in the fire. Luckily, though, no one was in the home at the time of the inferno and no one was hurt.
Fire department officials said they were alerted to the blaze both by an alarm from the home and by calls from Breen’s neighbors. The cause of the fire is under investigation.
“Numerous hand lines, as well as two ladder pipes and a deck gun, were used to battle the fire,” they said.
The 61-year-old Breen has been the voice of the Knicks for 30 years, starting with calling games on the radio on WFAN in 1992, and then becoming the play-by-play man on TV at MSG.
He’s been the lead NBA play-by-play broadcaster at ESPN/ABC since Al Michaels left the network in 2006, and has called every NBA Finals series since then. He’s also called several Olympics, plus the NFL on NBC and Fox.
“Mike is a cherished member of the ESPN family and he knows he has our full support through this excruciating circumstance,” ESPN said in a statement. “We know the damage is devastating, and at the same time, we are grateful that he and his family are safe.”
