3 injured after space heater ignites in Holtsville garage

A Holtsville man and his girlfriend were seriously injured Saturday when a space heater ignited in his garage, Suffolk police said.

Kevin Mazurkiewicz, 22, was using an aerosol can as part of a car painting project when the heater ignited, police said.

He and his girlfriend, Jennifer Conners, 28, were taken to Stony Brook University Medical Center, where Mazurkiewicz was in critical condition and Conners in serious condition.

Police did not have further details. A neighbor said Mazurkiewicz's father was also burned.

The neighbor, Rich Ciraulo, who lives next door on Pearl Avenue, said that around midnight Friday Mazurkiewicz's mother came to his home and asked him to call 911.

"I was nervous for my neighbors," he said, adding that he speaks to them often and considers them close friends. "I had no idea what was happening."

Ciraulo called 911, then went to the Mazurkiewiczes, where the victims were standing in the front yard. "There was nothing I could do," he said.

Conners was wrapped in a blanket, he said. Mazurkiewicz's father, Ronald Mazurkiewicz, had burned his hands trying to put out the flames, which had already subsided, Ciraulo said.

"I believe he saved his son's life and the girlfriend," he said, adding that Mazurkiewicz's mother also helped. "They saved the kids."

Across the street, Sylvanna Orenzow and Cariann Edwards woke up to a street filled with flashing lights, ambulances and fire trucks, they said.

"I heard a scream - that's what caused me to look outside," Orenzow said. "It was dark. I didn't see flames. I didn't smell smoke."

She said she saw Kevin Mazurkiewicz's mother weeping as her son sat on the curb.

"They are very quiet," Edwards said of the Mazurkiewicz family. "It's very sad."