West Babylon fire at apartment complex displaces dozens of residents, officials say

A fire that broke out late Tuesday at a Fairfield apartment complex in West Babylon displaced about  50 residents and did extensive damage to at least two second-floor units, fire officials said.

One firefighter and two residents suffered injuries considered minor, according to Suffolk County Department of Fire, Rescue and Emergency Services Commissioner Rudy Sunderman. All three individuals were taken to hospitals for treatment.

The West Babylon Fire Department responded to a 7:29 p.m. call of a structure fire at the Fairfield Suburbia Gardens on Great East Neck Road and discovered a blaze in one of its three buildings, department chief William Allen told Newsday at the scene.

Two second-story units were ravaged by fire, while water and smoke damaged the two units directly below, Allen said. Another eight units had smoke damage. The power was cut off to the entire building, making it uninhabitable. Allen was not sure when any of the displaced residents would be allowed to return to the building.

Residents whose apartments were not heavily damaged, like Christine Driscoll, hoped to come back late Tuesday or sometime Wednesday to grab their essentials.

"All I know is that we’re not allowed to go back in because it’s not safe, they said," Driscoll, 54, told Newsday.

Buses from a mutual aid fire department arrived to carry residents to the nearby Our Lady of Grace Roman Catholic Church, where they could register for assistance through the American Red Cross and the county, the chief added. The Driscoll family planned to head to the church before driving to a friend’s home in Bayport.

Driscoll and her husband, Brian, grabbed their coats to endure the subfreezing temperatures as they stood on the slushy sidewalk outside their apartment building. But the couple, along with their son, Sean, 25, did not grab their wallets, prescriptions or any other essentials as they evacuated. They endured a similar situation in October 2024, when a fire tore through their Farmingdale house.

They ultimately sold the home as they could not afford to make repairs, Christine Driscoll said.

More than 100 firefighters from 13 departments responded to the fire, Allen said. They extinguished the blaze after an hour. The first firefighters on scene initially struggled to access the building because of snow, ice and vehicles in the parking lot.

"We were trenching through snow with hose lines to try to get in place," the chief added. "It was pretty difficult just to get established."

The first fire hydrant responders hoped to use was covered in snow, so they used an alternative, which "did delay water supply," Allen said.