Family aided after Huntington Station fire

The fire that ripped through the Huntington Station house Flor Genao and her family shared with her parents early Saturday morning took almost everything.

The living room set bought new just two years ago, everybody's clothes, the Bible her husband's father left him when he died: It was all gone.

But they have friends. "Thank God for them," Genao said in a phone interview Sunday.

One of them, Karla Velez, asked the temporarily homeless family - four adults and two girls - to stay with her a few blocks away. For now, Aurora and Jose Antonio Colato, who own the burned-out house at 41 Third Ave., are in Velez's bedroom, with Flor Genao and her husband Jose on air mattresses in what's usually a playroom for Velez's children. Velez is camping out in her daughter's room.

Caroline Barahona, a friend, brought over pajamas and warm winter coats. The Trejos twins, Mercedes and Karina, who are neighbors, brought over a big plate of rice and beans and chicken their mother had made.

The Huntington Manor Fire Department stopped by twice to see how they were doing and dropped off gift cards to Kmart and Waldbaum's, paid for by the department's annual fundraising softball game.

"These people lost everything," said Assistant Chief Fred Steenson Jr. "We're here for them with advice and whatever resources we've got, just as we would be for anyone in this spot."

Velez, who works at the International House of Pancakes in Huntington Station, said she raised almost $400 from co-workers and $200 more from the neighborhood C-Town supermarket.

Genao says her family has home insurance but wasn't able to get in touch with the company over the weekend and doesn't know when - or if - they'll be able to move back home.

Her younger daughter, Gabriela, is only 2 years old and doesn't seem to mind. But Ashley, the older one, is 6 and realizes that something very bad has happened. "She's OK," Genao said, "but I haven't driven her by the house. I don't want her to be traumatized."

Police officials investigating the cause of the fire, which appeared to be accidental and started in the kitchen area, could not immediately be reached for comment Sunday. The Suffolk Police Arson squad is investigating.