Officials: 2 die in Huntington Sta. fire

A Huntington Station woman and one of her daughters died Friday in a house fire that her son escaped with minor injuries.

Reyna Paris, 64, and her daughter Rosemary Martinez, 29, were pronounced dead at Huntington Hospital after firefighters evacuated them from the second floor of what was described by one fire official as a clutter-filled house on Fourth Avenue.

Reyna Paris was "a very beautiful person," her sister said Friday, hours after the fire.

Joseph Martinez, 26, Paris' son, escaped on his own from the basement of the home, Suffolk County police Det. Lt. Jack Fitzpatrick said. He also was taken to Huntington Hospital for treatment of minor injuries.

Ana Paris Corporan, Reyna's sister and a Huntington Station resident, said Friday that her sister was born in the Dominican Republic and had lived in the home for more than 40 years.

She said Paris had five children, including Rosemary, Joseph and three other daughters, and that she loved to knit and crochet and was a terrific cook. "She was a very beautiful person, a giving person," Paris Corporan told Newsday.

A neighbor, Victoria Guadron, 55, said Friday morning that Paris had been a religious woman who was "compassionate."

Guadron, whose 11th Street house is cater-cornered to the Paris home, said she was awakened Thursday night by the commotion of first-responders -- and later saw emergency personnel performing CPR on one of the women. She remembered conversations with Paris in the backyard, where they chatted about life and their children. "She was very compassionate, Guadron said of Paris, adding: "We are going to miss her."

A family member told police Rosemary Martinez had Down syndrome, Fitzpatrick said.

Investigators, including the Suffolk County fire marshal, Town of Huntington fire marshal and Arson Squad and Homicide detectives, were on scene early Friday, trying to determine what caused the fire -- and if what was described as "clutter" inside the home was a contributing factor.

A town spokesman, A.J. Carter, told Newsday the home had no history of building code violations.

Asked whether the fire was suspicious in nature, Fitzpatrick said, "That's what we're looking at at this point."

Asked about a possible suspect, Fitzpatrick said: "We never discuss suspects."

Fire officials said more than 100 firefighters from eight departments responded to the scene after a 911 call reporting the fire at 11:42 p.m.

Much of the fire was confined to the basement of the home, fire officials said.

Officials said Joseph Martinez was on the lawn when firefighters arrived, which was how responders knew the two women were inside.

Officials initially said Martinez was 28, not 26.

Fitzpatrick said Joseph Martinez had "self-evacuated" the home. "What I do know is he was able to get out, possibly through a basement window," Fitzpatrick said at a news conference at the scene.

Huntington Manor Fire Department Chief Fred Steenson Jr., described the interior of the home as clutter-filled and said some rooms were nearly impassible, complicating rescue efforts. "There was a lot of clutter in the house," he said.

"Upon arrival," Steenson said at the scene, "we had a heavy body of fire in the basement of the house with confirmation of the two victims up on the second floor which we retrieved out of the house."

But Steenson said volunteers did a "phenomenal job" navigating the inside of the home to locate the victims and get them outside, so responders could administer cardiopulmonary resuscitation -- though, ultimately, to no avail.

A neighbor, who didn't want to be identified, said he heard police banging at the door and trying to find a way to get in. Then he saw smoke and the fire departments came.

In addition to volunteers from Huntington Manor, firefighters from Huntington, Greenlawn, Dix Hills, Cold Spring Harbor, Halesite, Melville and Syosset assisted.

Huntington Ambulance also responded to the scene.

Steenson said that smoke conditions were a factor. He also said one area under investigation is whether the home had adequate smoke detectors.

With Víctor Manuel Ramos and Candice Ruud