N. Bay Shore house fire kills boy, injures sister

A 17-year-old boy was killed and his 16-year-old sister was hospitalized in critical condition last night after a fire ignited on the ground floor of a two-story house in North Bay Shore, Suffolk police said.

Luis Zayas was pronounced dead at Southside Hospital in Bay Shore last night, Det. Sgt. Thomas Groneman said. His sister Angela Alvarez was taken to Nassau University Medical Center in East Meadow. The victims' mother, Zulma Zayas, 36, was able to escape from a ground floor window of the house, Groneman said at the scene of the fire last night.

The fire began at about 8:30 p.m., according to officials with the Brentwood Fire Department. Firefighters responding to the call arrived on Spur Drive North in North Bay Shore and found the brother and sister trapped in the basement.

Firefighters from the Islip, Bay Shore and East Brentwood fire departments responded. The fire was under control by just after 9 p.m., officials said.

An attendant at a nearby Spirit gas station, Joe Kilic, said he was in the gas station office when the first emergency crews arrived on the scene. Kilic said he went outside and heard "a woman, she was crying, 'help, help.'"

Groneman said the house had multiple families living there and several people got out safely. He said the cause of the fire was unknown but began in the back of the house. The Suffolk County arson and homicide squads are investigating.