There’s an old saying that the bonds of childhood friendships last forever. That played out in Riverhead this week, when a local woman stepped up to help a friend she first met at Riverhead Middle School, whose family home on Newton Avenue was gutted by fire Monday night.
Randy Majewski and his father Joe escaped their burning home with nothing but the clothes on their backs Monday night, when a fast-moving fire started in the kitchen and destroyed the back of the one-story ranch home where Joe Majewski has lived since the mid-1980s.
“I was in my room and heard weird loud popping noises,” Randy said in a phone interview Wednesday night. He said he had been heating french fries in the microwave and when he went into the kitchen to check on the noise, he said, “I could feel the heat.”
There were flames around the stove and range hood, he said. His first thought was to grab a fire extinguisher, he said, but “I could see the area around the stove was already too far gone.”
He raced down the hall to his father’s bedroom, and found the door locked. “I started banging on the door,” Randy recalled. The hall was filling up with thick black smoke, he said. His father opened the bedroom door and closed it right away, the son said. That may well have saved his life.
Randy said he crawled back down the hallway and was able to find his way to the front door. Police officers had already arrived at the house.
The Riverhead Police Department said in a press release that night that officers found the house “engulfed with flames and heavy smoke.” The officers attempted to enter the house but were forced to retreat due to heavy smoke and fire. A resident of the house was located near the front door and reported that there were two other adults trapped inside, police said. The officers assisted a woman through a front window and then went to the rear of the house where they were able to locate a man in a rear bedroom and pull him through a window to safety, according to the police report.
The occupants of the home were treated at the scene, police said.
MORE COVERAGE: Riverhead Police officers pull three people from a burning home on Newton Avenue Monday night
They escaped with their lives, but Joe Majewski, 76, and Randy, 43, self-employed roofing contractors, lost everything else in the fire.
“All our clothes, everything in all the rooms is just gone,” Randy said.
“There’s nothing left.”
Enter Jeanne Smith, who has known Randy since middle school. She set up a fundraising page for Randy and Joe on the GoFundMe website and solicited help from the community.
Smith described Randy as a “kind soul who is willing to lend a hand.” He’s a local, Riverhead High School alumnus, she noted.
“They have lost EVERYTHING but their lives,” she wrote.
Randy said he is staying at his mother’s house and his father is staying with Randy’s sister. They need help to buy basic necessities, Randy said.
“We really, really appreciate the outpouring of caring and concern,” Randy said. “I didn’t think that many people would care that much.”
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