Cops: Woman dies in West Islip house fire
Firefighters at the scene Satruday night in West Islip where a womam was killed in a house fire, Suffolk police said. Credit: Howard Simmons
A woman was killed in a West Islip house fire Saturday night, Suffolk County police said.
The fire is being investigated by Suffolk police Homicide Squad and Arson Squad detectives, although the cause appears to be noncriminal, authorities said.
Third Precinct officers were called to the Myrtle Avenue home at about 7:50 p.m. in response to a 911 call reporting a fire, authorities said.
The Suffolk County Medical Examiner’s Office will determine the woman's identity, police said.
The woman had died before she was pulled from the blaze, said Robert Celeste, an assistant chief with the West Islip Fire Department. No one else was in the home, he said.
“We found the victim relatively quickly,” Celeste said. “But unfortunately, the victim did succumb to the injuries even prior to our arrival.”
Celeste was the first on the scene and said the front and side of the home was already engulfed in flames when he arrived.
About 125 firefighters from a half-dozen departments responded and it took about 25 minutes to extinguish the fire, he said.
Vera Chinese joined Newsday in 2017 after working as an editor for the East End lifestyle publication northforker and a general assignment reporter for the New York Daily News.
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