Maple Crest Apartments in Deer Park heavily damaged by Sunday fire

A dozen families were left homeless after a fast-moving fire tore through a two-story Deer Park apartment complex, authorities said.

The blaze was reported at 6:15 p.m. Sunday in one of the units at the Maple Crest Apartments on Baldwin Path, according to the Suffolk County Department of Fire, Rescue and Emergency Services. There were no reported injuries.

Naima Naim had just moved into a unit with her children in July and had yet to fully unpack.

"We just moved in and now we’re homeless," Naim said as she moved boxes from the destroyed apartment. "I can’t even wrap my head around this. I can’t believe this is happening."

The blaze spread quickly and burst through the roof, causing part of it to collapse, fire officials said.

Firefighters from departments including Deer Park, Babylon, Brentwood, Dix Hills, Commack, Lindenhurst, Melville, North Babylon, West Babylon, West Islip and Wyandanch battled the fire, which was brought under control in about an hour, officials said.

In total, about a dozen units were affected. At least four were completely destroyed by fire and the others have smoke and water damage.

Allan Pashcow, managing partner of Town Realty Co., which owns the complex, said they've offered to put the displaced residents up in hotels.

"We're just having people take some of their possessions with them and trying to find them a place to go," he said. "It's unfortunate but people have banded together to try to help out."

On Monday afternoon, residents from throughout the complex were helping their displaced neighbors carry out their possessions and take stock of the damage.

Vito Reciniello, the American Red Cross' disaster program manager for Long Island, said his team will be providing housing assistance, along with meals and beverages through at least Tuesday.

"We have mental health services and casework services for everybody that needs," Reciniello said.

Steven Waibel's apartment was one of the dozen destroyed in the blaze. Waibel and his girlfriend are expecting a child next month and now must find a new place to stay.

"All the ceilings are caved in," he said. "There’s water everywhere from the hoses … The whole place has to be redone. It's all water damaged. But other than that, we were able to get our baby stuff out."

The Suffolk County Police Department's Arson Unit is investigating the cause of the fire which is not considered criminal, police said.

With Shari Einhorn

By Robert Brodsky

robert.brodsky@newsday.com@BrodskyRobert

Robert Brodsky is a breaking news reporter who has worked at Newsday since 2011. He is a Queens College and American University alum.