Sag Harbor Fire Survivor Meets Hero Cop Who Saved Him

His eyes filled with tears after watching the demolition of the building on Sag Harbor's Main Street that had been his home before a devastating blaze swept the village, Michael Lynch arrived at the police station Monday to meet the hero cop who saved his life.

"He's my angel on earth," Lynch said of Sag Harbor Police Officer Randy Steyert.

Steyert's 13-month-old baby Barrett had been up all night with a fever — so the police officer decided to start his day off with a strong cup of coffee.

That decision likely saved Lynch's life.

Steyert had just gotten to SagTown Coffee when he smelled the smoke, alerted the coffee shop employee to get her out safely, dialed 911, and then began banging on Lynch's door.

Lynch didn't wake up right away; he told Patch he initially thought the noise was related to construction and went back to sleep.

"I'm happy I went back up there," Steyert said.

What made those initial moments even more difficult was that, having not gotten to work yet, Steyert had no police radio, and was using only his cellphone.

But something told him to bang on the door one more time.

Facing each other for the first time since the fire, Steyert said, of meeting the man he saved: "It's great. I'm happy to see him. We've had a chance to talk."

Joking, Steyert said, of Lynch, "He's got his clothes on this time."

On the morning of the fire, Lynch had appeared in only pajama bottoms; he grabbed slippers and a jacket and ran, literally, for his life as flames began to lick the sliders and smoke billowed into his apartment.

Asked how it felt, knowing what could have happened if he hadn't been there to wake Lynch, Steyert said quietly, "I don't like to think about that part of it."

He said he was awed by the outpouring of support Sag Harbor received that day from scores of firefighters and EMTs who rushed to the scene in horrific, icy conditions. "It was amazing," he said. "And especially amazing that no one was hurt."

Although the pair had never met before Friday's fateful morning, Lynch said he'd like to have "a reunion" with Steyert every year.

"We're buddies now," Steyert said.

Sag Harbor Police Chief AJ McGuire, reflecting on the save, said, of Steyert: "I think God put him in the right place at the right time. Somebody's guardian angel put him there."

"The way that fire took off, conditions went from bad to worse within 20 minutes," McGuire said. "If this had happened an hour earlier, we may have had a fatality."

Lynch said he was roommates with Fred Kumwenda; the pair lived above the real estate building directly to the right of the theater.

Lynch, who had just moved into the apartment had, in an ironic twist of fate, just finished moving in his possessions three days before.

He lost everything in the fire — clothes, a computer, his phone, shoes, his wallet — in a blaze so hot it melted his electronics and the tables, Lynch said.

The one thing he prayed he could salvage was his mother's rosary beads. "We just lost her a year ago, in October," he said.

But sadly, the building was demolished Monday. The rosary beads were never found.

Lynch, however, believes it was his mother, his "guardian angel", with whom he was very close, that saved him.

The one thing he found in his jacket pocket was a keychain, with the words "Love, Mom," in his mother's handwriting, that his sister had made for them after she passed away.

"It's the only thing that I have left of hers," he said.

Lynch has been staying with his sister Maura Lynch since the fire. She said her brother came to her home in just his pajamas, reeking of smoke. "He lost everything," she said.

After the fire, Lynch said he worked two doubles at the Service Station restaurant in East Hampton, where he's employed. Of the fire, he said, "It's not even real yet."

But despite all he's lost, without the heroism of one police officer and the firefighters who came to his rescue, "There'd be a whole different narrative we'd be speaking of today. I wouldn't be speaking of anything."

Lynch also wants to thank a volunteer firefighter who also ran into the blaze, checking every room in the building. "At one point, he was in the front window, and there was smoke pouring out, and I was screaming, 'There's someone up there! Get him out!' They brought a ladder over and he was able to climb out of the building," he said.

To those angels on earth, Lynch is forever thankful. "The debt of gratitude is beyond words," he said.

Lynch said he's prepared to get a new driver's license, bank cards, and other necessities of daily life that were lost. "I'm going to start piecing things back together," he said.

A Crowdrise page has brought in more than $36,000 for Kumwenda.

No fundraising page has yet been created for Lynch; details will follow as fundraising efforts commence.

Watching the demolition of his home and all that remained of his worldly belongings, Lynch was, "was very emotional." He was saved, he said, "by just a matter of minutes."

The home where he lived, he said, might have been the place where he died — had it not been for a hero police officer . . . and his guardian angel.

Walking back into the cold December sunshine Monday, Lynch held the keychain with his mother's handwriting. "I know who my guardian angel is," he said.

Patch photos by Lisa Finn