Mom, 3 Kids Lose Everything In House Fire: 'I'm In Disbelief'

SHIRLEY, NY — A house fire in Shirley Monday night has left a single mom and her three children with nothing but the clothes on their backs.

Nikki, who asked that her last name not be used, said she has seen many challenges in her life: Homelessness, the death of her son's father, having to live in a car while she tried to raise a young child and still continue with her education.

But finally, she said, life had turned around: After struggling for years, working two jobs and sleeping on the couch in her small apartment so her kids could have the bedrooms, she'd completed her education, had begun working as a nurse, and had purchased her first home, on Kent Drive in Shirley, in January.

On Monday night, however, a house fire left the house of her dreams gutted, all her family photographs and memories destroyed — and Nikki and her three children on the street.

According to Suffolk County Police, the fire broke out at 8:27 p.m. on Kent Drive, between Grandview Drive and Pinetree Drive.

Nikki said she had just left for her night job three blocks away; her older son, 21, was watching the younger children, a son, 10, and daughter, 7. "I kissed the kids good night and said, 'I love you. I'll see you in the morning,'" she said.

She'd literally gotten to the door of her patient's home when she got a call from her younger son, saying, "'Mom, come home! There's a fire!' I could hear my daughter screaming," she said.

Nikki raced back home and in the few minutes she'd been gone, she said: "I saw the house engulfed in flames. All I could say was, 'Where are my kids? Where are my kids?" she said. "I just ran to find my children. And then I saw my three kids outside barefoot," she said. "I was in disbelief."

On Tuesday, still trying to absorb what had happened, Nikki said she and the children had been offered a place to stay until the weekend at a nearby home used as an Airbnb rental. Concerned community members and friends have been dropping off clothes. And her friend and realtor Sheryl Osborne set up a GoFundMe page, "Shirley House Fire Emergency."

"As I sit here and write this at 2:30 a.m. I am just coming in from being with a dear friend who just lost her first home to a fire," Osborne wrote on Facebook. " I spent the last five hours in front of the house with her and watched what she worked so hard for — as a student going for that next degree, working two jobs as a nurse and as a single mother of three — be destroyed and boarded up. . . There is nothing salvageable that we could see."

Nikki said she and her children had literally still been unpacking but now, all the years of memories were gone, her daughter's artwork destroyed, precious school photos lost. And the home that she'd finally been able to provide for her children, in smoking ruins.

"To finally have obtained something you worked so hard for . . . and then, to watch it go up in flames . . . " Nikki said, her voice faltering.

But most important, she said — her kids were safe and unharmed. "I told them, 'You're here, that's all that matters. We can always get more furniture. Even if I have to work another 20 years, I can replace it all, little by little. But I can't replace you.'"

Still, Nikki said, the loss hits hard. She'd saved up her money and piece by piece, bought furniture for the house, scoured Facebook buy and sell groups, and put it all in storage until just two weeks ago. "We were, little by little, fixing the house the way we wanted it — this was our dream."

Born in Brooklyn, Nikki has known hard times, sharing a room with eight siblings, she said. And it was her life's mission to give her own children a better life.

"I was trying to create something better for them. That's why I was sleeping on a couch for seven years, cleaning up my credit, saving money to go back to school — so that I could give them something they could be proud of, so that I could own something."

When they moved in, Nikki finally had a bed of her own again. "It felt so good, the few times I laid in it," she said. "This is bittersweet."

Still, Nikki said, if the fire had started on another night, her room was located right above where the blaze broke out, and she and her children would likely have been asleep. On any other night, the ending may have far more grim.

Thankful that her children were safe, Nikki said she is also grateful for the kindness of all those neighbors, friends and even strangers who have donated clothing and expressed concern.

She refused to let the setback kill her spirit. "I've been through so much in 42 years. . .I've been through a series of unfortunate events, but you just overcome and do something better with your life. It doesn’t do me any good to sit and brood — that's wasting my time, and not accomplishing anything. And it's not helping my children, because if I’m upset they get upset," Nikki said.

She added: "You don't have a choice but you have to keep going. I can't cry. Yes, I'm hurting but what good will it do to sit here and cry? My kids still need a place to live; I still have to go out and do what I have to do every day. I'll be damned if I worked that hard to get a house and then, just gave up. I've been through so much in my life. I'm not going to let a house fire defeat me."

Looking ahead, Nikki will navigate insurance, the rebuilding process, and finding a new place for her children to live temporarily. But she will not let the challenges overwhelm her, she said.

Instead, Nikki said she chooses to smile for her children through the tears, to be their strength in the proverbial storm. "I cry in silence, but I try to be resilient in front of them. Because it's not about me — it's about what I can do to make things okay for them."

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