'The House Is On Fire!': A Long Island Family Lost Everything But Found Hope In the Ashes

JAMESPORT, NY — Christine McKay, who owns Vines & Hops in downtown Riverhead, was at home on a brilliantly blue September Saturday, hanging clothes outside, when she heard the fire alarm inside the Jamesport residence she and her family have treasured since 1988.

The alarm, McKay said, is the type that sounds the word "fire" loudly. She ran to the house where, in panic, McKay's first thought was to grab a wool blanket and try to extinguish the flames. But the dining room was filling with thick, acrid smoke and when she turned the corner into the living room, a section of the couch and curtains were already devoured by flames.

"The fire was too big. Too smoky," she said.

Her dog Max was able to get out and the other family dog Daisy, half blind and deaf, was trying to go out the wrong door. "I knew I had to get her out," she said. By that time, smoke was up to her neck and filling the rooms, choking her; she suffered smoke inhalation and even now, weeks later, the sound of her voice reflects the smoky terror of that day.

While at first, her inclination was to try to extinguish the blaze. "Then I thought, 'What if I tripped, fell into the fire? I'd get third degree burns. I'm a physical therapist, I know what can happen. So I just ran out."

Her daughter Melanie, who works at the Mattituck-Laurel Veterinary Hospital, was just pulling in the driveway. "I was screaming, 'The house is on fire!'" McKay said.

The family has three cats, but one, Shiva, who they could see sitting in a window, tragically couldn't be rescued. A neighbor tried desperately to save her, running with a ladder, but the ladder didn't reach.

The loss echoes; Shiva was a rescue, physically handicapped with a broken paw that Melanie had adopted from the vet, "a big part of her heart," her sister Yvonne McKay said. "They could see her in the window, but the cat got scared and went under the bed and the firefighters couldn't find her," she said.

The only comfort comes from knowing their cat was loved every day for the last weeks of her short life, the McKays agreed.

Christine McKay said even as the flames raged through her family's home, the pure kindness of neighbors and strangers shone through despair.

A neighbor she didn't even know ran into the basement and saved another cat, Misty, who was in a cat, she said; another brought the ladder.

A family from Dix Hills, as well as a crowd who were next door at Jason's Vineyard, including Dix Hills firefighters out for a day on the North Fork, all rushed to help. Some at the winery cared for the family's dogs for hours.

McKay was frantically calling her husband Jeff, who was at Vines & Hopes. "It was a shock, when he finally saw the house," she said.

Despite valiant efforts by firefighters, who doused the house with water in hope of saving the family's home, it was too badly damaged to be saved, McKay said.

The furious fight to save her home by firefighters and the outpouring of love from the community — a GoFundMe page has already raised more than $16,000 — comes from the friends and neighbors the McKays have known for years, Jeff, coaching softball and Christine, running a Polish dance group in Riverhead. Some of the kids she's taught call her "Mama McKay," and those very same children, now grown, have contributed to the fundraising page in a heartfelt show of love and solidarity.

"We've always been very involved in Riverhead, and for the people who know us who were at the fire — it was very hard to see our house burn."

The house held a lifetime of cherished memories, beginning back in 1988 when they moved in, three weeks before Christmas, with the first thing in the home was their Christmas tree.

Their children's photos, which once lined the walls, are gone now. And the dining room table, which kids used to sleep underneath during sleepovers, was a table the family had made themselves, is also lost.

"Just about everything in our house was destroyed, including most of our personal possessions," said Yvonne McKay, on the GoFundMe page.

The Jamesport Fire Department, as well as Cutchogue, Mattituck, Southold and Riverhead and Wading River fire departments responded to battle the fire, which broke out just before 3 p.m. on Sept. 9 at the home near Herricks Lane.

For Christine McKay, who "didn't grow up with a lot," and has worked two jobs, beginning with catering and babysitting, for years, each item in her home held precious meaning and memories

"I valued everything," she said, "I knew what was in the house, everything was strategically placed, with my husband."

Their home, which was designed in a ski lodge style with river rock veneer tone on the walls, included salvaged barn wood; inside special possessions included antique wooden skis with pole, a four-person toboggan, and a salt lick from 1911. "They might still find it in the rubble," McKay said.

Also gone is a painting by her husband's uncle, an artist — everything that had been in the living and dining rooms, including her laptop, cell phone, and keys, was consumed by flames, McKay said.

And some losses, such as her own childhood cradle, and a crib and changing table that her father, who died of ALS, picked out for her girls, cut deep. "It's still only things," McKay said. "What are you going to do?"

The home itself will soon be just another memory to cherish, she said.

"The smoke damage is so far up in the walls and ceilings that nothing is recoverable," McKay said. "It has to be demolished."

But then, there were the miracles.

Although the search is still on for her wedding and engagement rings, which were in a box, Jamesport firefighter Joey Szot made sure to save McKay's wedding album, some of her daughter's memory books, photos — and McKay's jewelry armoire.

On the day after the fire, the family re-entered the charred remnants of their beautiful home. "It was hard," McKay said.

Using a flashlight, she noticed a white piece of paper on the couch — it turned out to be a photograph of her paternal grandparents' wedding. "I have no idea why it was there. What a joy to turn it over and see that photograph," she said.

And, too, there were the inexplicable moments, such as when she found a gold cross of her grandmothers' in box where it should not have been, and never put it, McKay said.

Those miracles can only be attributed to her deep faith in God, McKay said. "I lean heavily on God. He wants us to trust him and he's given me a ridiculous amount of calm."

Even sifting through the charred debris of her home, McKay is able to find perspective. So many others face far more devastating challenges, she said, such as losing a child, battling an incurable disease, and other life-altering events.

"People tell me I'm so resilient. What else can I do? I could wallow in self-pity, but so many people have worse situations," McKay said.

And still, the community is rallying, helping to plan a series of fundraisers.

"People have gone above and beyond," McKay said, donating clothing and opening their hearts.

With a rich sense of humor, McKay is even able to laugh at what she was wearing while cleaning, when the fire broke out, just shorts and a thin T-shirt. "It wasn't pretty. I wasn't dressed for a house fire," she said. Reflecting, she said, "I have to keep my humor."

The experience, she said, has solidified her strong faith. "I had a plaque in the dining room that said, 'God doesn't give you what you can handle. He helps you handle what you were given.' That's one of the statements I live by."

Currently, the McKays are staying with family, and looking to the future, to a new home on the site of their old house — and to their daughter's wedding in October on the North Fork.

Her mother of the bride dress burned in the fire, but she's gotten a sea of beautiful dresses shared by friends. And, too, after the tragedy, the florist for her daughter's wedding donated the flowers; the band is playing for "almost nothing," she said — all further instances where the heart of a caring community has come shining through in their darkest hour.

"Everyone is reaching out left and right, and we are eternally grateful," McKay said.

Patch photos by Lisa Finn.