Fire in Wyandanch church forces closure of soup kitchen

Staff at a church-based soup kitchen serving the Wyandanch community for decades handed out sandwiches Monday instead of the usual hot meals, one day after a fire tore through their basement kitchen and the church.

No one was injured in the fire, which was reported just after 2 p.m. on Sunday at Mercy Soup Kitchen and Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church in Wyandanch, Suffolk County police and fire officials said. Firefighters from Deer Park, North Babylon, West Babylon and Wyandanch extinguished the blaze.

Vito Colletti, the president of Mercy, said Monday the fire left the soup kitchen facilities at the church without electricity.

"I was optimistic that things could move fast, but I'm slowly but surely being disillusioned," Colletti said. "We know it's going to be a costly recovery, there's no doubt about it. I'm sure insurance is not going to cover all the expenses. ... It's just frustrating not being able to help the people that really need it the most."

The ongoing outage, along with fire, smoke and water damage, plus broken windows and doors, meant hot meals were out of the question for at least the rest of this week, and likely longer, Colletti told Newsday late Monday.  He could not provide a timeline on getting power restored, hiring a cleanup crew or starting repairs. Colletti and church officials are scheduled to meet with insurance adjusters Tuesday to determine the extent of damage — and also how long it will take to make repairs.

Colletti said investigators from the Suffolk fire marshal's office had indicated the cause of the fire likely was squatters smoking cigarettes under an awning in the basement stairwell entrance to the soup kitchen. An official cause has not been released but the police believe the fire was "noncriminal" in nature. The Mercy Soup Kitchen has operated out of the church, on South 20th Street across the street from the Wyandanch Public Library, for 45 years, Colletti said.

Cold sandwiches, like the nearly 100 ham and cheese, peanut butter and jelly and others provided Monday will have to suffice for a while longer, he added.

The soup kitchen established an online fundraiser Monday afternoon with a goal of $40,000 for repairs.

It serves about 130 to 150 people hot meals daily on weekdays year-round between 11:30 a.m. and 1 p.m. It also serves lunch sandwiches two Saturdays each month, Colletti said.

"Right now," he said, "I'm in a fog. I'm just trying to figure out where we are with everything — and what we need to do. ... They came in and shut off the electricity, shut off the gas. The door is broken in, they knocked out at least a half-dozen windows. There's probably more water damage than fire damage, but I've got refrigerators and freezers that are shut down ... and I'm afraid I'm going to lose everything in them if we can't get the electricity back on soon."

Monday evening, between $3,000 and $5,000 worth of chicken, chopped meat, hot dogs and other staples sat in the church's walk-in, chest and upright freezers, Colletti said. If power is not restored Tuesday, he made arrangement to transport as much food as he can to Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal Church, about a quarter-mile away. 

The church's worship area escaped damage but Colletti said services will resume only after crews "clean out the smoke."

"They use a lot of electric to take out the water and filter out the smoke," he added. "Once I get the electric back, then we can start making some progress."