Photo: gofundme
A 30-year-old man and his 10-month-old son are recovering after a fire swept through their Long Island, New York, home and killed his 31-year-old fiancée.
Stephen Ortner and Lisa Ostrowski struggled to escape when a fire spread through the home on Friday morning, according toWCBS.
Ortner, 30, faced the flames head-on to rescue the couple’s 10-month-old son, Leo, and managed to pass the boy to a neighbor through a second-floor window.
“Everyone was running with a sense of urgency. It was on fire, really, like, roaring fire, something really serious,” neighbor Tashiem Jameel told WCBS.
Ortner tried to go back into the home to get to Ostrowski, but a fire official convinced him to jump from the second floor to safety, WCBS reported.
A neighbor recalled hearing Ostrowski from inside the home as she tried to find a way out before firefighters arrived.
“The only thing that I heard was some woman screaming, and I was still on the phone with the dispatcher,” neighbor Karina Schwarz toldWABC. “And I was like, ‘There is a woman screaming in this house. I don’t know where it’s coming from, but I know that it’s there.'”
Ostrowski ultimately died inside the home, while Ortner and Leo were transported to Stony Brook University Hospital. Both are expected to recover.
AGoFundMecampaign has been started for Ostrowski’s funeral and to help Ortner and Leo once they recover.
“We lost a most amazing mother Lisa Ostrowski, who was engaged to Steven Ortner and they have an 11-month-old amazing little boy Leo Ortner,” campaign organizer Barbara Iannuzzi-Prass wrote on the donation page. “Steven and Leo are both in the ICU with severe burns, both are in critical but stable condition.”
“Lisa will need a proper funeral and Steven and Leo will need to restart their lives once they are out of the hospital,” she added.
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The campaign has so far raised nearly $80,000 as of Monday afternoon.
Carolyn Ortner toldNewsdaythat Ortner — who was sent to the ICU — knows his fiancée was lost in the fire.
“He keeps saying, ‘I tried, I tried,'” she said.
James Chmela, Stephen’s friend, said Ostrowski had a life-changing effect on her then-husband-to-be.
source: people.com
