Two West Islip homes severely damaged by fire that started in one home's garage

A fire severely damaged two adjacent West Islip homes Friday afternoon, fire officials said.

The blaze began in the garage of one of the homes on North Monroe Avenue at around 12:20 p.m. Friday, a Suffolk County Police Department spokesperson said via email.

The fire then spread to the rest of that home, a car outside the garage, a PVC fence between the two structures and ultimately the second home, West Islip Fire Department Chief Robert Celeste said in a telephone interview Friday.

"Both structures sustained severe damage," Celeste said.

“Detectives believe the fire started from an undetermined mechanical failure of the vehicle that was being worked on,” in the garage, a Suffolk police spokesperson said, adding that the cause is considered noncriminal.

All occupants of both impacted homes on N. Monroe Avenue evacuated before first responders arrived, Celeste said. He added that members of the American Red Cross were on the scene to help the families.

Several neighbors on the block were home during the blaze, including Ryan Umpleby, who witnessed a plume of black smoke bellowing into the air.

"It was just surreal," Umpleby, 22, about three houses away from the fire, said. "I looked out my side window, the house was up in flames ... It felt like a hot day out when I opened my window, the heat was felt all over here."

Before peering out of his home to see the garage ablaze, next door neighbor Alex Ortiz said he heard at least three loud, "deep" noises that sounded like "big explosions."

His wife, Allison Ortiz said "it’s really unfortunate" that this happened to their neighbors of nearly a decade, who she described as "good people."

"No one got hurt, no pets got hurt ... but it was one bad fire," Allison Ortiz, 40, added.

An owner of the house where the blaze began declined to speak to a Newsday reporter at the fire scene Friday evening. No one appeared to be present at the other damaged home around 6:30 p.m.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation by the Islip town fire marshals and detectives with the Suffolk County Police Department Arson Squad, the West Islip fire chief said.

As restoration crews worked atop the burned roof of one house where the blaze began and insurance assessors surveyed damage to the other, children Friday passing by  Friday evening stopped to look at the blackened siding and shingles, boarded up windows and garage reduced to ash.

Around 50 firefighters from West Islip and around a half dozen other departments spent around one hour an 45 minutes extinguishing the blaze, according to Celeste.