House Fire Leaves a Breezy Point Family With Nothing but Hope

By Katie McFadden

At around 3 a.m. on Thursday, September 11, Marissa Larsen awoke to the sound of what she thought was someone trying to break into her home in Breezy Point. Her daughter, Sabrina Perrotta, who has an advanced level of autism, was asleep, so Larsen took action to defend her family. She grabbed a baseball bat from underneath her bed, grabbed her phone and called 911. She then ran down the steps, turned a corner to look into the kitchen and outside, and instead saw an intruder of an unexpected form.

“On the front deck, I saw big black smoke and my windows were popping. I thought the sound of the windows breaking had been someone trying to get into my house. But it was a fire that became raging immediately,” Larsen said. The 911 call for a break in quickly became a call for a fire.

Larsen then jumped into action to save her daughter from this new enemy. “I ran up the steps to grab my daughter. She was dead asleep. I pulled her down with her eye mask still on, right down the steps. She tried to turn around and go get her phone. She’s very attached to it. So, I had to pull her back and I damaged my leg somehow. But I pushed her in front of me. The smoke was coming towards us, and the flames were growing, and I pushed her out the door. Then we ran and the house was already engulfed in flames,” Larsen said.

Without shoes and wearing nothing but their pajamas, Larsen and Perrotta sat at a bus stop and helplessly watched as their home, with all of their belongings, burned down.

Despite it being so early, help arrived from the local volunteer fire departments including Point Breeze and the Rockaway Point Volunteer Fire Department, as well as several FDNY units responding to the four-alarm blaze. The line of trucks was so long down Point Breeze Blvd. that additional vehicles couldn’t get through. But the fire companies got the fire under control and kept it from spreading around, not far from where St. Edmund Church suffered a devastating fire in April. But the damage was done.

Larsen was taken to the hospital for smoke inhalation and the injury to her knee. “Sabrina didn’t get much smoke, thank God, but it overcame me, and I had to go to the hospital,” Larsen said. Perrotta was examined on site and went to stay with her aunt in Breezy Point, a familiar refuge to go after the traumatizing morning. Larsen quickly saw a silver lining in that she and her daughter survived the ordeal, something reiterated by a fire marshal taking a report after. “He said, ‘It’s truly a miracle. We would never expect to be able to speak with the homeowners because we thought we’d be taking them out in body bags,’” Larsen recalled the marshal saying. “I’m very grateful it wasn’t me and Sabrina’s time.” Fortunately, Larsen’s son, Markus Perrotta, was not home at the time, as Larsen had just dropped him off at college a few weeks before. But he’s still feeling the trauma of what happened. “He never expected to not return to his home,” Larsen said.

Among the relief to still be alive, also came the realization of the next nightmare of what to do next. “We lost everything,” Larsen said. “I’m getting bombarded with so many things and demands and I don’t even have an ID anymore,” Larsen, still feeling the effects of the smoke inhalation, said through coughs and a raspy voice on Tuesday. “I’m trying to get my social security card reissued so I can get ID. I can’t even get a rental car because I don’t have a picture ID, so I’m stuck in Breezy with no public transportation,” she explained. And to make things worse, Larsen is unsure how she’ll rebuild. “I don’t have home insurance, so now I’m stuck with nothing,” she said. “I’m literally homeless now.”

After reaching out to the American Red Cross, Larsen said they told her there wasn’t much they could do. “They said they can give us a hotel for two nights but because we weren’t renting a home, they can’t help me further. I’m not a renter,” she said.

So, for the time being, Larsen and Perrotta are staying with Larsen’s sister, Christine Williams, in Breezy Point, a place with people that Perrotta is familiar with, including her full-time aide, Larsen’s niece, Maggie. “They’re graciously letting me and my daughter stay in my niece Katie’s bedroom. As Sabrina is autistic, change is a big issue for her, so at least she’s somewhere she knows,” Larsen shared.

Katie Williams, who now lives in Rockaway Park, is more than willing to give up her childhood bedroom for her aunt and cousins. On Thursday, she awoke to a bombardment of texts and calls from family letting her know of the news. She had just seen Larsen and Perrotta under a much happier occasion the night before, as the family all celebrated Katie’s birthday. “When I saw all the calls, my heart sank. I put on shoes and went over to my house in Breezy. Once I got there, I saw Sabrina and her face and had a meltdown. She had showered, but you could still smell the smoke on her. I couldn’t even imagine with her disability, trying to get her out in that situation,” Williams said.

Williams took Marissa and Sabrina to Target to buy new clothes to get them through the next few days, but she wanted to do more. “My dad passed away in 2016, and I remember someone started a GoFundMe for me, my mom and my sisters. It just meant the world to me knowing how many people wanted to help my widowed mom with young kids, so I knew I had to set that up immediately, and I know how blessed we are to live in Rockaway and Breezy and how everyone always comes together for each other,” she said. Williams set up a GoFundMe explaining the story and how the family is left with nothing. As we go to press, more than $122K has been donated.

And the efforts go beyond the GoFundMe. Neighbors immediately started a gift card drive, with the Rockaway Point Volunteer Fire Department being a drop-off location (204-26 Rockaway Point Boulevard.) The Graybeards quietly presented a check to the family. A community meal train for the family is in the works. And from frowns after seeing the ashes of her home on Thursday, came big smiles from Sabrina on Tuesday, as Paul Monahan of Paul’s Bike Shop on Beach 116th, came with a special delivery of a donated brand-new tricycle for Sabrina. A touching video of the exchange posted to Friends of Rockaway Beach on Wednesday, warmed the hearts of many. “Everyone knows Sabrina from riding her bike around. It’s a big thing to her,” Williams said.

Things like that are the exact reason Larsen said she moved to Breezy Point in 2011. “We moved to Breezy because of the community and having my special needs daughter who needed assistance and to be around family, in a safe community that has embraced her needs. We came from Brooklyn, and never felt a part of that community,” Larsen said. “The community support after the fire has been overwhelming. This is the reason I moved to Breezy Point. I knew as a single mom with two kids, my children would be safe here. My daughter has a difficult time making friends, but here, people call her by her name and know her,” Larsen said.

She just hopes it’s a place they can remain. “I can’t imagine not going back to a home here. I’m praying to God we can stay in the community,” Larsen said.

Williams hopes the GoFundMe continues to be a success to make that happen. “It’s amazing how it has reached random places, even donations from Europe are coming in. We’re really blessed because we wouldn’t be able to do this without help. They have no home insurance and they left without shoes, so this really means everything. We’re so thankful for the community and all of the people who donated. Hopefully, we’ll raise enough for them to be able to rebuild or buy a new home in Breezy,” Williams said. “It would mean the world because it’s such a special place we live in over here.”

To donate, head to https://gofund.me/103e63fe1 or search “Breezy Point Family Lost Everything in House Fire” on www.GoFundMe.com