Relative of North Amityville fire victim describes rescue

When Henry Lopez arrived at his brother’s North Amityville home on Monday morning, the house was already being consumed by flames, he said.

“Now, it is my brother that is consumed by pain,” Lopez said in Spanish between sobs on Tuesday.

The early morning fire killed the brothers’ father, identified by relatives as Francisco Lopez, 64, and injured three other family members.

Henry Lopez’s brother, also named Francisco Lopez, pulled his children, ages 12 and 13, to safety by pulling out an air-conditioning unit, then breaking a window barehanded, relatives said. The children were uninjured.

Another brother, Fausto Mancia, who shared a room with the elder Francisco Lopez and was in the house at the time of the fire, suffered cuts, burns and a fractured nose.

The family believes the elder Francisco Lopez died while searching for the children he believed were still in the burning home.

“When my brothers were searching for my father to get him out of the house and into safety, they couldn’t find him,” Henry Lopez said. “He wasn’t in his room and we presume he had gone out looking for the children. . . . He would give his life for those kids and he did.”

Suffolk police on Tuesday had no additional details about the fire and said the cause was still under investigation. Authorities have said they do not suspect any criminality in the blaze.

Henry Lopez said the family is gathering around his brother Francisco as he recovers from cuts, burns and smoke inhalation at Stony Brook University Hospital.

“But my brother is destroyed, he can’t accept the fact that though he was able to rescue my niece Gabriela and my nephew Francisco Jr., that he wasn’t able to save our dad,” he said, adding that Francisco has been sedated several times.

Lopez said the family still is stunned by the tragic events and must turn to planning a funeral for the elder Francisco Lopez.

“That man was my father,” Henry Lopez said. “But he was more than that to our family, he was a real hero. . . . My brother, he’s a hero too. He did all he could do, he even hurt himself removing the air conditioner from the window on my father’s room and breaking it with his fists. It was just too late.”