Crime & Safety

Cops: Electrical Issue Sparked Fire That Killed 90-Year-Old Man

Wesley Carrion died after he was pulled out of a fire at his Sag Harbor home on Monday afternoon.

Police and a fire chief who arrived first at a fire in Sag Harbor Village on Monday afternoon tried to save Wesley Carrion, 90, but the blaze was already too far along.

"The heat and fire was too intense," Sag Harbor Village Police Sgt. Paul Fabiano said on Tuesday morning. "My guys couldn't get in there."

Officers and Sag Harbor Fire Department First Assistant Chief Jimmy Frazier arrived at the 14 Hillside Drive East house, in the Sag Harbor Hills subdivision, within minutes. Flames were just starting to show, and there was a thick, black smoke coming from the house, he said.

A neighbor called 911 after seeing smoke at about 3:40 p.m., Frazier said. "The caller said a man lived there and there was a good chance he was inside," he said.

When the first engine arrived firefighters donned their gear and went into the house to search inside for the man. The neighbor thought the man was likely in the bedroom that erupted in flames, so firefighters searched that first, Frazier said. "He turned out to be in the back room," he said.

They found Carrion's lifeless body on the floor and carried him outside, Frazier said.

The Sag Harbor Volunteer Ambulance Corps performed life-saving measures on him, and even got his pulse back, Fabiano said. He was transported to Southampton Hospital. "Unfortunately, he succumbed to his injuries," Fabiano said.

Police believe the fire began accidentally and was electrical, starting in a separate bedroom than the one Carrion was found in inside the old, single-story house. Investigators are still working toward their final report, he said.

The Suffolk County Police Arson Squad was asked to investigate, along with the East Hampton Town Fire Marshal's office. Fabiano said that in cases where there is serious injury or a fatality, it is standard procedure to call in the arson squad.

Fabiano said he and other officers knew Carrion from around the small village.

At 90, Carrion was ambulatory, Fabiano said, but he wouldn't discuss his health status.

Though Frazier didn't know him personally, he said many of his fellow firefighters knew him. "He was very well liked. It's just very sad," he said.

In recent years, two others died in fires on the South Fork. A 78-year-old man, who was partially disabled, died when his cabin went up in flames at the Cozy Cabins in Wainscott in February 2012. A 95-year-old woman was rescued when her home caught fire in Southampton Village in October 2012, but she later died at the hospital.


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