‘I lost everything, all my doggies and my cats’: stunned victim of Monday house fire

It took only three hours for a fire to reduce Claudette Tuttle’s home of more than three decades into a charred ruin, taking with it all of her personal belongings and the lives of three dogs and several cats.

Claudette Tuttle of Aquebogue said the pet dogs lost in the fire were a lab pitt named Keenan, a shepherd named Emmy and a black and white puppy named Bo.

Tuttle said Jimmy and White Paw are the only two cats that remain in her possession after the two-story house on Meetinghouse Creek Road in Aquebogue burned down Monday afternoon. See prior story.

“Two cats ran out of the door,” said Tuttle. “One of them was one of my inside cats and I don’t know if I’ll ever see her again. I don’t know where she could have gone.”

The cause of the blaze, which ultimately consumed the wooden structure that has been in the Tuttle family since the 1920s, remains uncertain at this time, but Tuttle said she suspects a faulty oil burner for the destruction.

Riverhead Fire Marshal David Andruskiewicz said Tuesday morning “the oil burner cannot be ruled out as a possibility” as the cause of the fire based on Tuttle’s statements that she was having problems with it. But, Andruskiewicz said, the destruction of the home was so complete, he would not be able to accurately determine what caused it. He said he believes it was was accidental and not suspicious in nature.

Tuttle, a 64-year-old retired Riverhead school bus driver, spoke to RiverheadLOCAL Tuesday morning about the events that changed her life.

“I take care of my mom next door and that day I was home,” Tuttle, in tears, recounted what happened Monday afternoon.

“I got up about a quarter to twelve to go over there and I smelled something like oil, but I dismissed it because sometimes it smelled like that when we were running low on oil. I never cook there and I don’t have any heaters or anything, so the only thing it could have been is an outdated, faulty oil burner.”

Tuttle said she didn’t return home from her mother’s house until it was too late.

“When I came back an hour later, I saw the smoke billowing out the windows,” she said.

At the time, neighbor Fay Scott and her daughter Tiffany had already called 911. Scott said Tuttle could be heard shouting about having dogs and cats inside.

“[Tuttle] was very distraught because of her animals,” said Scott. “Police had to prevent her from going back in.”

That’s when one lucky cat’s life was saved.

“We were standing on top of the driveway and [Riverhead police officer Charlie Silleck] saw Jimmy in the basement and broke the window,” Tuttle said. “I grabbed him and took him into my mom’s house. He was gasping and his whiskers were crumpled. [My son] said [Jimmy] ran through the fire and you should smell him. He’s purring now and breathing okay. Late last night, I found his brother, White Paw.”

Tuttle said the timing of the fire could very well have saved her life and that of her son, Daniel, 32, who lived with her at the residence and was at work at the time of the incident.

“Any other time of day we would have been in there and we might have died,” she said, adding that doesn’t make the loss of her pets any easier.

“I lost everything, all my doggies and my cats. They were all going to go and we’ll meet again someday, so that’s my only consolation.”

Donations of clothing, food or checks (payable to Claudette Tuttle) can be sent to:
Ava Robinson
P.O. Box 76
Aquebogue NY 11931