Fire destroys apartment of Northport mother and son day after graduation

This past Saturday morning, members of Northport’s Hook & Ladder Co. 1 responded to a working residential structure fire at the Fairfield apartment community on Main Street in Northport Village. According to a statement made on the department’s Facebook page, crews were met with heavy fire in a first floor apartment; the fire extended to the apartment above and attic. The fire was quickly extinguished, and the apartments searched and overhauled.

While details are limited due to an ongoing investigation, the residents of the second story, Emily Barnes and her son Dante, shared their story via a GoFundMe page set up the day of the fire.

“My son was sleeping in a black smoke-filled room when we woke up to the downstairs apartment yelling ‘fire,’” Barnes wrote in the GoFundMe. A senior at Northport High School, Dante had just celebrated his graduation the day before the fire.

“He was treated for CO poisoning and is thankfully okay. We are grateful to have our lives,” Barnes said. The family’s pug, Toshi, is also safe.

Fire, smoke and water destroyed everything the mother and son had in the house. “The fire department cut holes in the roof, the floors and tore out walls to put the fire out,” Barnes said. “We have no idea what it’s going to cost to replace even the basic items we need to carry on with our lives – clothes, shoes, computer, medications, etc.” The apartment has since been condemned and Emily and Dante are looking for a new place to live.

As of Monday morning, the family’s GoFundMe had collected over $21,700.