One dead, one hospitalized after fire
A woman was killed and her roommate hospitalized after an early morning fire Wednesday swept through a multiunit Ronkonkoma home, police said.
The dead woman was identified as Stephani England, 31.
Her roommate, Laura Caldara, 41, was taken to Stony Brook University Medical Center where she remained last night with nonlife-threatening injuries, hospital officials said.
Seven other residents of the home escaped, officials said.
Fifty-five firefighters from six departments battled the fire, which took about two hours to bring under control, police said. Firefighters responded to the blaze about 3:30 a.m., police said, after a neighbor called 911 to report the fire.
Upon entering the house on Johnson Avenue, firefighters found England dead, police said.
Police said the cause is under investigation but the fire isn't considered suspicious after an initial examination.
Juan Yupton, 40, who lives in a first-floor unit of the house, said he led Caldara to safety but could not reach England.
"It was a wall of flames," said a neighbor, Sean Dean. "The heat was unbelievable."
Speaking in front of the remains of the house Wednesday, Yupton said his sister alerted him to the fire about 3 a.m.
He said he shares a first-floor unit with his sister, her husband and their son, while others live upstairs and in the basement.
Yupton and his brother-in-law grabbed a ladder and put it up to the upstairs window, where Caldara was, he said.
"She had fire on her hands" and her face was black, Yupton said of Caldara.
Yupton said he grabbed her under her arms and helped her down the ladder.
Det. Lt. Gerard Pelkofsky, commanding officer of the Suffolk homicide unit, said police had not confirmed Yupton's version of events.
Yupton said he went back for England, but the fire was too intense.
He said he moved the ladder to another window at the back of the house, but couldn't get in there either.
By that time, police had arrived, he said.
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