Beleaguered Breezy Point residents spent another day sifting through the wreckage of their storm-ravaged neighborhood, which lost 111 homes — and at least one furry friend.
Kathleen Fitzsimmons, 51, escaped out a kitchen window with her 17-year-old daughter as the house was burning.
But the family’s Labrador–pit-bull mix, Bailey, 4, was not as lucky.
“I tried to get to her, but I couldn’t,” Fitzsimmons tearfully said. “The smoke inhalation was so awful, I started gagging. It was a nightmare.
“Bailey was my best friend — you can’t imagine.”
Fitzsimmons’ home was among those destroyed by the flames fanned and spread from house to house by Monday night’s fierce winds. Another 24 homes were seriously damaged in the fire.
“We stayed home until the last minute. We were trapped; we couldn’t get out the front door because the water was so high, so we escaped out the kitchen window,” said Fitzsimmons.
No house was spared by Hurricane Sandy, as scores more homes were damaged by flooding — including one summer home that was swept off its foundation.
“The house just lifted up and the current pulled it right down the street,” said Bill Schloth, 75, of New Canaan, Conn.
Miraculously, the glasses and dishes in the cabinet were not disturbed,
When he saw his house halfway down the block, he said, “OK, we have a challenge.”
“I hung the flag on the bent flagpole and said, ‘Let’s pull out what has sentimental value and move on.’ ”
Firefighter Kieran Burke, 40, who lost his home on Irving Walk, broke into tears after finding a photo of him and his childhood pal Matthew Burke, a broker for Cantor Fitzgerald who died in the World Trade Center attack.
“Now I know it’s going to be all right. He’s going to take care of us,” he said.