Crime & Safety

Family Says Lack of Heat, Space Heater to Blame for Lindy House Fire

Displaced family says home's lack of heating and subsequent replacements to blame for blaze.

A family whose apartment was destroyed in a November 14 house fire that consumed a home on Hoffman Avenue.

Speaking to News 12 Long Island, resident Tamilynn Christianson claimed a space heater left on in the third-floor apartment above her's was to blame for the fire, left on due to a lack of heat in that space.

"She kept coming down and knocking on my door telling me she had no heat... the stove wasn't working," Christianson said.

The fire itself consumed the building's top floor quickly in the afternoon on November 14, leaving ten tenants displaced in the hours after.

Photos captured during the day there showed the fire billowing from the top of the home, eventually leading to the collapse of the roof.

A cell phone video provided to News 12 Long Island and Patch by her sister Mindy Reinstein also shows Christianson, herself, and the landlord, identified as Ben Romano of West Islip, in a heated argument outside of the home days after the blaze.

Neither the Lindenhurst Fire Department or Romano were willing to comment on the fire to News 12.


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