Update: House fire in Mattituck: one dead, three escaped; investigators on scene

Edy Herrera — a dishwasher at C.J.’s American Grill in Mattituck who would have turned 27 today — lost his life in Tuesday morning’s devastating house fire in Mattituck, several of his friends confirmed to The Suffolk Times.

Multiple area fire departments responded to the blaze Tuesday morning on Old Sound Avenue near the Amagansett Building Company. Smoke was visible for miles around the scene, and portions of Rt. 48 were closed to traffic for much of the morning. Southold police responded to a 911 call about the fire at 9:43 a.m.

“I was inside the house, in my room, and my mom called, yelled to me,” said Mattituck High School graduate Erick Morales — who also lived in the house — in an interview on Wednesday morning. “I opened the door and just saw smoke everywhere.”

Mr. Morales was able to evacuate a young cousin and another relative, before rushing back in to retrieve Mr. Herrera.

“I tried to go back upstairs to get my friend, but I couldn’t,” said a distraught Mr. Morales. “The fire was, like, really bad.”

While the cause of the fire remains unknown, according to county officials, Mr. Morales said that “it looked like it started in the basement.”

Rony Giron said that friends of Mr. Herrera and Mr. Morales heard about the fire and came running.

“I called all our friends and we came together, tried to do something, but it was too late,” Mr. Giron said.

Friend Joe Aiello said that Mr. Herrera, who was living in the house with extended family and relatives, was an only child, whose parents live in Guatemala. He said that all the home’s residents are of Guatemalan descent.

“They are just devastated,” Mr. Aiello said.

C.J.’s owner Joanne Richards said that Mr. Herrera has helped out with the catering arm of the business for years, and recently took a staff job as a dishwasher.

“His cousins are my two chefs,” she said. “It’s awful.”

“I call him ‘Herrera,’ because we have too many Eddies around here.”

Ms. Richards said he worked in catering for a few months this summer, and he would come and help out over the years because his relatives worked at the restaurant.

She said that the affected families have a lot of relatives in the area that are pitching in.

“That’s a North Fork community for you — everyone helps out when someone’s in trouble.”

A memorial for Mr. Herrera will be held sometime soon at C.J.’s, Ms. Richards said.

Southold Police Chief Steven Grattan told The Suffolk Times that three people escaped the burning home, and that one woman was hospitalized as a precaution.

Mr. Grattan said there have been reports that more than a dozen people were living in the house, possibly made up of members of two families. Most of the residents were at school or work by the time the fire started.

Chief Grattan said that “at this point in time, [there is] no indication of how it started.”

An American Red Cross disaster team at the scene registered “five households and 11 individuals (including four children)” for emergency services, according to Newsday.

A GoFundMe page seeking donations for the families displaced by the fire raised more that $68,000 in less than 24 hours. Donations for the families are also being accepted at  at Wendy’s Deli, 55 Middle Road in Mattituck.

Suffolk County Police arson investigators are probing the source of the fire.