One day after a devastating fire that ripped through a Greenport home and killed a man and his dog, next door neighbor Charlie Corwin described the horror that unfolded Wednesday night.
“I was watching TV when I heard yelling outside,” Corwin said. “At first I thought it was kids outside, then I heard a terrible, blood-curdling scream.”
Corwin immediately raced to dial 911, then ran outside to help his neighbors.
According to Southold Town police, a fire broke out at 6:43 p.m. at 630 First Street in Greenport, killing Jack Pollack, 61.
Greenport Fire Department responded to the house fire and found the house fully involved in flames, police said. The Southold Fire Department also responded to assist.
Pollack and his wife Karen, 58, were at home at the time the fire broke out, police said.
Pollack, who was physically handicapped and wheelchair bound, died as a result of the fire. His wife was able to get out of the home, suffering minor injuries. She was transported to Eastern Long Island Hospital by fire department ambulance, where she was treated for her injuries and released.
“The first thing I thought was that Jack was disabled, and he wouldn’t be able to get out,” Corwin said. At first he thought he could somehow drag his neighbor to safety, but the intense heat and smoke drove him
back.
Running around to the back door with Karen Pollack, Corwin said they made a heartbreaking discovery: the Pollacks’ young dog Buster who had died. The black Lab was only about a year old, Corwin said; the couple’s cat, a fluffy silver-gray feline, has been lost since the blaze.
“Smoke was billowing out of the house,” Corwin said. “The speed at which this place went up was incredible.”
The fire department response was immediate, Corwin said, but still, the fire was too deadly to save Pollack.
“It’s a new level of powerlessness and helplessness, knowing someone was inside. It’s a terrible feeling,” Corwin said.
Another man, Wade Hackett, 41, whom police have called a Good Samaritan, “tried to jump and kick the door, but he just rolled down the steps.”
Recalling the dramatic scene, Corwin said windows were shattering from the fierce heat. “The fire was just roaring,” he said.
Despite the fact that firefighters on the scene knocked down the blaze quickly, “there was nothing they could do.”
Although they didn’t know one another well, Corwin said Pollack was “a nice guy, a nice, humble guy.” He and Karen Pollack would talk while they walked their dogs, Corwin said.
Corwin, who remembers how fire touched his own life when, as a child, his Greenport barn burned down, has been leaving out tuna fish, in the hopes of finding the lost cat.
Hackett brought himself to Eastern Long Island Hospital for treatment and was released. A Greenport fireman also sustained minor injuries while fighting the fire. He was also transported to Eastern Long Island Hospital by ambulance, treated and released.
Members of the Southold Town Police Department., Suffolk County Police Department. Arson Squad, and Crime Scene Investigation Unit, as well as the Suffolk County Medical Examiners Office, responded to investigate the fire and death. Both are considered non-suspicious at this time, with further investigation to continue, police said.
