Suffolk Police Officer Matthew Ingui saves dogs in Rocky Point house fire

Suffolk County Police Officer Matthew Ingui was two hours into his Sunday shift when he responded to a call for a house fire at 181 Magnolia Drive in Rocky Point.

As the officer approached the house shortly after 5 p.m., he saw neighbors waiting outside.

“You could see the smoke coming out of the house when I got there,” Ingui said in a Sunday evening interview. “The first thing I always ask is “is anyone in the house,” [the neighbors] told me the homeowners are not home, but there are dogs in the house.”

As he approached the house, he saw the three pups staring out the front window.

He then sprang into action, running up the front steps before he “popped the window out, climbed through the front window, and I just started grabbing the dogs, handing them to the neighbor outside the window and we got them out.”

Ingui said the dogs were barking as the smoke from the fire began to rise out of the basement and into the main floor of the house.

Ingui, who has three dogs of his own, said the homeowner, who could not be immediately reached for comment on Sunday, was grateful for his quick response.

“She told me her dogs were like her children,” he recalled.

Suffolk police said several fire departments, including Rocky Point, Ridge, Sound Beach, Miller Place and Wading River, responded to the scene shortly after Ingui rescued the dogs.

Authorities said the cause of the fire is believed to be noncriminal. No injuries were reported.