Red Cross assists residents after West Babylon house fire

The Greater New York Red Cross was helping affected West Babylon residents Thursday morning after a house fire on Albany Avenue drew multiple Suffolk County fire departments to a dead-end street before sunrise. The blaze was reported in a 911 call at 5:49 a.m., and at least one responding firefighter suffered burns.

Fire crews from 12 Suffolk County departments were battling the major fire at the home, authorities said. News 12 reported that seven departments responded to the scene around 6 a.m. Officials had not yet said what caused the fire or whether anyone was home when it started.

The American Red Cross Long Island chapter, based in Mineola, serves Nassau and Suffolk counties and was on scene assisting residents affected by the fire. The organization provides shelter, food, clothing and emotional support at no cost to disaster victims, the kind of immediate help that can matter most in the hours after a family loses access to a home, clothes and basic necessities.

The broader Greater New York Red Cross disaster-response program handles more than 12,000 people each year across about 2,300 emergencies, a scale that shows how quickly a local house fire can become part of a much larger regional response. In West Babylon, the focus Thursday was on the Albany Avenue household and the firefighters working through the early morning blaze while investigators awaited answers on how it began.