“It was movie-like.”
No kidding.
Firefighters out of Bay Shore, East Islip, Central Islip, Islip Terrace, West Islip, and North Babylon Fire Co. reported to a fire at 1096 Spur Drive South just before sundown on Saturday, Feb. 22nd.
Exchange Ambulance of the Islips and Bay Shore-Brightwaters Rescue Inc. also assisted.
Bay Shore Fire Department confirmed that 2nd Assistant Chief Joseph Ferrari detected two stories worth of flames in the ranch-style home, and 1st Assistant Chief Charles Macchio next established a command post.
All occupants self-evacuated ahead of their arrival. Three people were ultimately taken to South Shore Hospital with injuries not considered life-threatening.
In this case, Suffolk County Police Arson detectives are currently hard at work.
This fire comes after the tight-knit South Shore community was recently rocked by one wherein a woman was killed by a fire that tore through the house of origin, and each of its adjacent neighboring homes.
According to law enforcement officials from the Suffolk County Police Department, three people were inside the home at 1417 North Windsor Avenue when the blaze first broke out at approximately 1:30 a.m. on Thursday, Jan. 30th.
Weeks later, the victim’s identity has still not been released However, the anonymity-electing good samaritan who first responded to the scene—and subsequently screamed and shouted the inhabitants of the impacted homes to safety—later confirmed the victim to be a sweet woman who was staying at the home to aid a friend in need.
One man was taken to South Shore Hospital with minor injuries and later discharged, while the other party present escaped physically unscathed—emotional wounds notwithstanding.
Meanwhile, 1417 North Windsor is—as video circulation confirms—completely done for; a streamy protrusion of gust winds carried the fire’s spread to the surrounding homes, which included the fortunately abandoned house at 1415. The family inside 1419 managed to evacuate without a scratch.
"That amount of fire you know, you really can't get inside the structure so we have to hit it with our deck guns and then the wind is just pushing the water away from the fire, so it just adds an extra level of difficulty to it,” Bay Shore Fire Chief John Ippolito, Jr. told the media.
Fourteen total fire departments responded to contain the fury of flames.
An investigation into the cause of the tragic fire is still underway.
Bone-chilling photographs from the blaze still hit with evergreen fervor weeks later.
Recalled Bay Shore resident Rochelle Brown with News 12, the New Windsor flames were “movie-like”—a film this neighborhood would most certainly like to forget.