A fire tore through a strip mall in Central Islip on Long Island, destroying a row of local businesses and dealing what residents described as a gut punch to the community. The blaze reduced the stores to smoldering rubble, leaving owners and workers to watch their livelihoods disappear in the smoke that rose over the neighborhood.
Officials say the flames broke out at around 2:30 in the afternoon at a laundromat on East Suffolk Avenue before tearing through the rest of the strip mall. The fire spread quickly along the row of stores on a day of extreme heat that, according to authorities, helped fuel the flames.
The laundromat that appears to have been at the center of the fire had been a fixture in Central Islip for about 20 years. Residents described it as a one-stop shop that also housed a cell phone and electronics store, with tables, chairs, an ATM and games inside for those who spent time there.
For many in the neighborhood, it was more than just a place to wash clothes. On certain days, customers said, the business offered free washing, free drying or free soap and bleach, the kind of small gestures that had turned it into a community hub now lost to the fire.
Bringing the blaze under control was no small task. The Islip Fire Department was joined by dozens of other fire departments that rushed to the scene to provide support in what crews described as a very taxing firefight carried out in the sweltering heat of the afternoon.
It took more than five hours to bring the fire under control. The Central Islip fire chief said that at least five firefighters and one police officer walked away with minor injuries after battling the flames, with colleagues rotating in to give exhausted crews the relief they needed.
With the fire out, attention has turned to what caused it, and the Suffolk County police arson squad is now investigating the blaze. For residents, the immediate concern remains the human cost, with jobs lost and the income those businesses brought to Central Islip and the wider county gone, at least for now.