Couple Pleads Guilty 2 Years After MD Sisters Die In Hamptons Fire

POTOMAC, MD — A Long Island couple pleaded guilty to multiple charges this week, two years after a devastating fire ripped through their vacation rental, killing two Montgomery County sisters who were vacationing with their family in the Hamptons on Long Island.

On Monday, Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney announced that Peter Miller, 56, pleaded guilty to two counts of criminally negligent homicide, and Pamela Miller, 55, pleaded guilty to second-degree reckless endangerment following a result of a fatal fire that occurred at the Miller’s rental home.

Sisters Lindsay Wiener, 19, and Jillian Wiener, 21, of Potomac, died in the fire. They were graduates of Holton-Arms School, an all-girls school in Bethesda.

Holton-Arms school head Susanna A. Jones said Jillian was a soccer and ice hockey player, artist, yoga instructor and raised funds for children's cancer; Lindsay was president of the Community Service Club and the Jewish Culture Club, Newsday reported.

Jillian was to be a senior at the University of Michigan, while Lindsay would have been a sophomore at Tulane, the report said.

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According to court documents, Lewis Wiener and his wife, Alisa Wiener, were on vacation with their three children, including Lindsay and Jillian, plus their older brother, Zachary. The family stayed at the Miller’s rental home in Noyac on Aug. 2, 2022. That evening, the family attempted to use a charcoal grill located in an outdoor kitchen attached to the main house, prosecutors said.

When the food did not cook, the family removed it from the grill and cooked the food in the indoor kitchen, Tierney said. The family ate dinner and went to sleep at approximately 11:30 p.m.

Around 3:30 a.m. the following day, the mother and father woke up to the sound of glass shattering, Tierney said. When they left their bedroom to investigate, they saw fire in the kitchen and screamed for their children to get out of the house, Tierney said.

The couple escaped, but their father, Lew Wiener, re-entered the home to locate his children. The heat conditions forced him out of the house and left him with burns on his feet.

The couple’s son opened his bedroom door but was overwhelmed by the heat and smoke conditions and could not locate his sisters, according to prosecutors.

After realizing the fire had trapped him in his bedroom, the son jumped from a second-story window to escape, Tierney said.

The Sag Harbor Fire Department was the first of several fire agencies to arrive at the scene, Tierney said. Fire chiefs saw flames in the kitchen, thick black smoke, and intense heat, officials said.

Firefighters gained access to a second-story bedroom, where they located the sisters, Tierney said. Both were taken to Southampton Hospital, where they died from their injuries.

The surviving family members and responding fire personnel reported that no fire alarms were heard at any point, Tierney said. Investigators later determined the origin of the fire was the outdoor kitchen, which the Millers constructed on their own without a permit and without an electrical inspection, Tierney said.

The outdoor kitchen was mostly made of wood with low-hanging wood ceilings that sat above the charcoal grill and gas stove. The bottom grill vents of the charcoal grill were completely blocked by an attached counter, and the electrical circuits that the outdoor kitchen shared with the indoor kitchen were overloaded and improperly wired, Tierney said.

The Millers advertised the rental home in Noyac on multiple popular vacation rental sites. Their listing indicated the home was equipped with smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, Tierney said; however, an electrical inspection revealed they were not connected properly, and there was not adequate fire detection throughout the home, Tierney said.

According to prosecutors, multiple smoke detectors in the home were de-energized by the fire and did not have battery backups, including the one in the room where the sisters slept.

The Millers were arrested on Aug. 22 after turning themselves in at the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office, Tierney said. On Monday, Peter Miller pleaded guilty to two counts of criminally negligent homicide, while Pamela Miller pleaded guilty to second-degree reckless endangerment, Tierney said.

According to the DA, the Millers were charged with 29 code violations including failing to apply for a permit before renting, constructing an outdoor kitchen without a permit and failing to ensure smoke alarms were properly connected.

The Millers are due back in court on Nov. 7.