Officials: Fire dispatcher's wife alerts him about blaze at their Centereach home
They say she told him that there were flames in a bedroom on the second floor of the house. He told her to get their son and get out and that help was on the way.
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Fire officials say a dispatcher was on the job Sunday morning when he received a call from his wife to tell him their Centereach home was ablaze.
They say she told him that there were flames in a bedroom on the second floor of the house. He told her to get their son and get out and that help was on the way.
Residents on Craft Road woke up to the fire that officials say broke out shortly before 9 a.m.
“It was too big,” said John Wheeler, who lives across the street. “There was no way a fire extinguisher was going to do anything for it. I mean, those flames were probably 10 feet above the roof. I mean, it was blazing.”
Dean Vilinsky, who lives next door, says he worried about the safety of his neighbor and his own family.
“Is it possible the fire could come here? Were we in any danger?” he said.
The dispatcher who works for the Selden Fire Department alerted the Centereach Fire Department and Suffolk County police about the fire.
Multiple fire departments got it under control in less than a half hour.
According to Suffolk police, the dispatcher's family escaped the blaze without any injuries.
“A house or a car or material things, all of it can be replaced. Lives can never, ever come back,” Vilinsky said.
The cause of the fire was not immediately known.
