Smithtown house fire injures homeowner and firefighter

Flames at a Smithtown home left 82-year-old Robert Barathy with serious burns and smoke inhalation and injured a firefighter after a large mutual-aid response stretched into the night. The fire broke out at 115A Oakside Drive, off Landing Meadow Road, just before 6 p.m., in a neighborhood where a fast-moving house fire can quickly pull in crews from across central Suffolk.

Suffolk County Police said Fourth Precinct officers were first dispatched to the home at 5:54 p.m. and found Barathy outside when they arrived. He was taken to Stony Brook University Hospital for treatment after investigators determined his injuries were tied to the fire itself. Police later said the cause was believed to be non-criminal, even as Arson Section detectives continued to examine how the blaze started.

The scale of the response showed how hard the fire was to control. News 12 Long Island reported that 11 departments worked the scene, and crews did not fully knock down the flames until about 9:40 p.m., more than three hours after the first call. One firefighter suffered minor injuries during the operation, a reminder that even with a rapid response, residential fires in Suffolk can remain dangerous long after engines reach the block.

The case also points to the way Smithtown and surrounding communities rely on a layered fire network when a single house fire turns into a prolonged emergency. Suffolk County Fire, Rescue and Emergency Services says the county Fire Marshal’s Office handles fire investigations, inspections and enforcement activities for building codes, public education, and technical response assistance to local fire and EMS agencies. In a fire like this one, those functions matter after the flames are out, when investigators, firefighters and police have to sort out what happened and whether other homes nearby are at risk.

For neighbors on Oakside Drive and the surrounding streets, the fire was a sharp reminder that an ordinary early evening can become a major emergency within minutes. The injuries to Barathy and the firefighter show how quickly smoke, heat and collapsing conditions can turn a residential blaze into a community-wide response.