Forced Out By Fire, Five Families Are Now Desperate To Find A Place To Live

Seventeen people have been displaced and left homeless after a fire last Friday, April 1, destroyed a two-story apartment building in Hampton Bays.

In a matter of minutes — the time it took tenants to pick up their kids from the bus stop at the side of the road near the apartment complex located at 317 East Montauk Highway — the lives of five families were forever changed, leaving them to face an uncertain future with just the clothes on their backs and wondering if and when they will be able to find a place to live.

Shortly before 4 p.m. last Friday, Aurelia González, a single mother of three daughters who has rented a two-bedroom unit for the last six years on the second floor, only had moments to act after she heard the desperate screams of her neighbors alerting them to a fire in the building. By then, smoke had already started to seep under their doors and the flames were advancing quickly.

González said she only had time to grab the hand of her 12-year-old daughter, her youngest, who was with her at the time, and then run downstairs to safety. Once outside, she remembered her six cats — Mila, Estrella, Spooky, Stormy, Milo and Oreo — who were still at the apartment, and tried to go back.

“The neighbor began to yell at me, but the fire was already advancing. We went down, but my kittens stayed. I went upstairs again to get them out, but they wouldn’t let me in,” González said. “I was able to rescue two, another one fled, and I never saw the others again.”

Shocked and in disbelief, González and her neighbors could only watch as the maroon, two-story wood structure became engulfed in flames, burning everything inside.

Hampton Bays Fire Department spokesman Michael Zarro said trucks were on the scene within minutes and that the heat radiating from the blaze could be felt as far as 20 feet away. “That building went up quickly,” he said.

Southampton Town Police reported the closure of the highway westbound at Peconic Road at 3:55 p.m. By 4:11 p.m., both lanes had been closed from North Road at the west to Peconic Road.

González said that her young daughter has not stopped crying since the fire. She said that she would never forget witnessing first hand how their lives and all their belongings went down in flames, something that has greatly impacted them. They are now facing an impossibly hard situation, she explained, where the emotional pain is compounded with having lost everything and figuring out where to sleep for the night.

“You should have seen my youngest, who saw everything. She screamed and cried. It was very sad, and it hurts me more because they are my daughters, and now we don’t have anything, not even a place to sleep,” González said.

Since the day of the fire, they have sheltered at hotels in Southampton and Hampton Bays, paying an average of $180 per night, a steep cost that she said she can’t afford. In addition, she’s also been unable to return to her job at Burger King, limiting their financial situation even more, because she said she can’t leave her daughters alone in a hotel.

The single mother of three said that her number one priority was to find somewhere to live as soon as possible.

On Wednesday, a friend welcomed them into their home, where, for now, she and her three daughters will share one room. Another family friend started a GoFundMe campaign, which as of Wednesday had raised over $6,500.

“You work to buy the little things you have and now we have nothing, because when we escaped, we went out in flip-flops and nothing else. But now I don’t want clothes, I don’t want food, I just want a place to put my daughters,” a desperate González said. “It’s very hard. ... At night, I hear my daughters cry.”

On the first floor of the 35-year-old building, in one of four, two-bedroom apartments — the building also had a studio apartment located in the basement, according to tenants — lived Jhon Muñoz, his wife, Inés Morales, and their 8-year-old son, Junior.

Although there is an ongoing investigation, and an official cause of the fire has not been yet determined, Muñoz said he believes the fire originated in his apartment.

He said he had left some rice cooking on low heat on the stove while he went down to the school bus stop to pick up his son. When they got back, they saw smoke coming out under the door of their apartment, alarming them.

“I entered and immediately saw the kitchen was on fire. I wanted to put out the flames, but I had nothing to do it with,” Muñoz said.

Muñoz said that the rice didn’t even burn and was still cooking because it was on low heat. The problem was likely caused, he alleged, because of the stove’s electrical connection, which had been failing for several years, he explained. Something he repeatedly told the landlord was happening, he said.

“Anyone can say that it was my negligence, because the fire started in my apartment, in my kitchen, but my stove had electrical problems. The stove had to be moved in order to turn it on. I’m sure it had some kind of electrical short, you had to physically move it so it made contact, and that’s how you could make it work, and also, the connection was a direct one, there wasn’t an appropriate plug installed,” Muñoz said.

The fire destroyed everything inside Muñoz’s apartment, and even damaged their vehicle, which was parked near the building, he said. However, Muñoz explained that their greatest losses are the items that they will never be able to replace, memories of their life, which also turned into ashes.

“Everything burned. My son’s birth certificate, the little footprints that were taken when he was born, our photos, and so many memories. Everything was burned,” he said, his voice choking on tears.

Muñoz said that he is grateful no one was hurt in the fire, which he believes is a miracle in itself. However, their pet fish died, he explained, something that was hard for them.

“We had two fish, but the tank was very big and because of my nerves I didn’t even remember until the next day when we saw it was destroyed. It hurt us a lot,” he said.

The Muñozes are temporarily sheltered in the home of a close relative, but they said finding somewhere to live is paramount.

Like the Muñoz family, upstairs neighbors Hermes and Marina Gonzalez had gone to pick up their 9-year-old daughter, Sheyla, at the bus stop. When they went back up the short, steep driveway that connects the road to their apartment, the fire had already started. They only had time to grab important documents and wait outside while 10 years’ worth of memories and belongings burned in front of them.

“It is horrible to see how everything burns. My daughter cried and kept saying, ‘Where are we going to live?’ The other children cried. … It was horrible,” Marina Gonzalez recalled.

Her husband said that he estimates that the family losses exceed $30,000, plus some cash that they kept in their house, which also burned. Echoing his neighbors, Hermes Gonzalez said the most pressing need at the moment for them is to find a place where they can start a new life from scratch.

“It’s not easy because we just came out of winter,” he said. “We don’t have savings to pay for security or deposits. We need at least $6,000.”

The affected tenants said they received $500, blankets and basic necessities from the Red Cross. Some churches have provided gift cards to buy groceries, while friends and acquaintances have helped them with small donations.

The property, located at 317 East Montauk Highway, is described as a 13-unit apartment complex, owned by L Squared, Victor La Terra’s company. It includes two structures — the one that burned down, which had five apartments and is located closest to Montauk Highway, and a second building with eight units. There are pending code enforcement charges there, town officials said.

There is also a pending lawsuit that La Terra filed in federal court in 2020, accusing the town of targeting his business because his tenants were predominantly Latino.