'I Lost Everything': LI Woman's Home Gutted By Fire, Weeks Till Holidays

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A GoFundMe, “Help Missy (Mary) McCabe After Tragic Fire And Loss”, was created by her friend Robert McInnis.

“Many of us know Missy (Mary) McCabe as a generous and compassionate longtime Greenport resident who has always been there for others in the community. After a recent devastating fire destroyed her home and claimed the life of her beloved cat, Missy has been living in a temporary mobile home while enduring the wind and elements. She was reluctant to ask for support, but so many people were asking for a way to help Missy, we created this GoFundMe for her,” he said.

To donate to the GoFundMe, click here.

McCabe described that dark day to Patch. Woken from a sound sleep, she heard the smoke detectors blaring. “I walked to the back of the house and I could see the whole Florida room; it was black with smoke,” she said. “I couldn’t see flames, but I could hear glass breaking. There were seven windows and sliding glass doors in that room.”

Although she had smoke detectors and two fire extinguishers, it wasn’t enough to stop the wall of flames.

Having worked as a registered nurse since she was 19, the head nurse of the emergency room at Stony Brook Eastern Long Island Hospital, McCabe said she has always been very conscious of safety, religiously unplugging toasters and other appliances. But nothing prepared her for the nightmare unfolding on that November Saturday.

“I was terrified,” she said. “I ran back to my bedroom to try and get my cat Minnie. I tried to get her out of the house, but the house was so full of smoke, I couldn’t get her. By that time, the house was filling with smoke. I just knew I had to go — or wasn’t going to make it.”

She added: “I just walked out in pajamas, a T-shirt and cotton pants and no shoes.”

Outside, a group of people had gathered, watching the smoke; McCabe called 911.

“I was walking around in a daze. I got a piece of snow fence, a steel pole, and I used that to break my bedroom window, to try and call my cat.”

Her voice breaking, McCabe said, “My cat died.”

The loss echoes: “I’m so upset. I live alone, and Minnie was always lying next to me on the couch while I watched TV. It’s just lonely,” she said.

Her cat had been 14, a rescue from Kent Animal Shelter.

The flames were so fierce that the vinyl siding on the house next door also ignited.

Despite the enormity of the loss, McCabe said. “I am grateful I survived. Without those smoke detectors, I don’t think I would have.”

Currently, McCabe is living in a mobile home on her property, which was provided by her insurance company. “The house was a total loss,” she said. “I lost everything.”

For McCabe, the house symbolized so much more than just a home — it was a haven she’d lovingly filled with photographs and memories, a place she’d worked tirelessly to pay for, to purchase all on her own — a symbol of strength and independence.

“I bought this home on October 11, 1996,” McCabe said. “I was pregnant. I did it on my own. I bought it myself and I paid it off myself. It was not easy, but I did it.”

So much was lost: A deck, newly redone last summer. “That’s gone,” she said.

Precious photos, destroyed. “Priceless things,” she said. “Things that had my grandmother’s handwriting. Valentines my grandmother sent to my mother, my valentines from my son.”

Her father had been a cello player in the orchestra at Notre Dame Academy, McCabe said. “The cello burned up. I play the guitar, and we lost some very valuable guitars. Valuable artwork on the walls.”

But losing possessions are not the worst thing a person can endure, not by far, said McCabe, a nurse who has seen so much tragedy and trauma that the memories still haunt. “What would have been worse would have been lying in the hospital with 80 percent of my body burned,” she said.

Despite the losses, McCabe said: “I have to keep refocusing and saying to myself, ‘You’re here.'”

On the day of the fire, police, firetrucks, ambulances converged upon the scene, McCabe said. “I just sat there. People were coming up to me, neighbors were talking to me. Everyone was so kind. People gave me blankets and jackets and someone brought me fuzzy slippers.”

The Red Cross came, with blankets, water, and toiletries. It was the Red Cross that had brought her the smoke alarms in past years, installing them for free. “That’s what saved me,” she said. “Because I was asleep. I was out.”

McCabe, in shock, was texting photos of the fire to relatives — she hails from a long line of local families — and soon, those family members came to help.

It was a miracle that both her car and truck in the driveway survived the blaze, she said. “The smell of the keys is the worst,” McCabe said. “It’s horrendous, the smell of smoke.”

And yet, in the face of the unthinkable, the North Fork community opened its hearts and arms to help.

Mullen Motors donated two new keys for the vehicles. “People are so kind; it’s amazing,” McCabe said. The owners of Billy’s by the Bay held a 50/50 raffle to benefit her. The Knights of Columbus have come forward. And now, there is the GoFundMe and the Chinese auction.

All that she had was lost in the blaze. Clothing, furniture, so many beautiful, antique books, many irreplaceable, that belonged to both her and her son. Heirlooms that belonged to her grandmother — antique pier glass, a mahogany and burl walnut bedroom set, along with a marble washstand, from the 1890s.

“It is sad,” she said. “But you’ve just got to go with it. I’m here.”

Friends have brought her dishes; she’s replaced her pots and pans and sheets. But every day brings the new discovery of something, things big and small, now gone— a vegetable peeler, a can opener.

“I didn’t even have a fork,” she said. “I was eating peanut butter with a plastic spoon from 7-Eleven.”

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Despite the heavy grief that renders her speechless still, weeks after the fire, McCabe is a survivor. She is focused on finding her way forward, despite the grief.

Even during the hardest days of her life, McCabe said she has been a self-professed “do-gooder,” walking the neighborhood, helping the elderly, working with the homeless, baking cakes and spreading cheer — and hope. “I try to help people,” she said.

And now, those neighbors and friends have come together in droves to raise her up in her darkest hour. “The North Fork is an amazing family,” McCabe said. “They stick together — and they take care of their own.”

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