Edy Herrera, the young man who died last week in a tragic house fire in Mattituck, was remembered by his friends at a memorial service on Monday as a hard-working, deeply-spiritual Guatemalan native who came to the U.S. two years ago determined to make enough money to send home to support his mother.

Suffolk County arson investigators have yet to identify the cause of the blaze, but a rental permit for the home has never been issued, according to the Southold Building Department — even though a resident said Monday that his family has been renting the five-bedroom, three-bathroom house for eight years.  

Mattituck High School graduate Erick Morales, who pulled his mother and young cousin from the burning building, said his family had frequently complained to their landlord that the house was old and in need of many repairs, including electrical work, but that no action was ever taken.

“We always asked him to tell the owner of the house to fix some things, because there was electrical [problems] that were going on in the house,” Mr. Morales said. “The house was really old — it needed to be paid attention to. It needed to be looked at, but he would never do it. He just wanted the money.”

The former high school soccer star said his family paid cash rent to a landlord who would come by two days before the end of each month to collect.

“It was always cash,” he said. “We asked if we could Zelle him so we had proof [of payment], but he said, ‘No.’ He wanted cash. No checks or anything. Just cash.”

The property where the house burned down — which is also occupied by Amagansett Building Materials and another commercial building — is owned by Long Island-based 12585 Sound LLC, according to town assessor’s office records. The limited liability company bought the property from George Penny in 2020 for $2.4 million, according to real estate records.

A town building department official said the department has no property records on the home, likely because it was built before 1957, when zoning was first enacted in Southold. The official said no certificate of occupancy has ever been sought or issued for the home. A CO is a prerequisite for getting a rental permit, according to town code. A rental permit application would have triggered safety inspections.

An employee who answered the phone at Amagansett Building Materials in Mattituck this week declined to give The Suffolk Times the name or contact information for the fire-ravaged home’s landlord. For that information, she referred the reporter to the building supply company’s manager Joseph Licavoli. By press time, Mr. Licavoli had not responded to a message left for him at the lumber yard, and no one answered the door or responded to a note left at an area home listed as Mr. Licavoli’s address.

Mr. Morales said that having 13 people living in the house was only temporary, and that four of the residents were scheduled to move to another Mattituck home on Dec. 1. He said that about a month ago, his mother took in her sister and three children, who had just arrived from Guatemala, until they could get on their feet. He said Mr. Herrera, who also came from Guatemala, arrived in town about two years ago, and had been living with the Morales family ever since.

Frantic phone calls

On the morning of the fire, Mr. Morales heard his mother’s screams and came running out of his room to find her racing through thick smoke in search of Mr. Morales’ young cousin.

“She couldn’t find him because there was so much smoke,” he said, adding that he found the boy in the first floor living room, “crouching and shaking and crying.”

He grabbed the child, found his mother and the trio made it outside. Mr. Morales said his mother suffers from asthma and heart problems and was briefly hospitalized.

Multiple area fire departments responded to the blaze last Tuesday morning. Smoke was visible for miles around the scene, and portions of Route 48 were closed to traffic for much of the morning. Southold police responded to a 911 call about the fire at 9:43 a.m.

Mr. Morales said that Mr. Herrera was always doing odd jobs to earn extra cash, so he initially wasn’t sure whether his friend was home that morning or out on a day job. After rescuing his mother and cousin, he tried to race back into the burning building, but the heat was too intense, so he started calling Mr. Herrera’s cellphone.

“Right after I hang up with 911, I called Edy twice,” he said. “The phone rang but he didn’t answer. So I had to hope that he was working.”

Next he called Edin Ramirez, who owns a detailing company and often employed Mr. Herrera for day jobs. “Then I called Rony [Giron], who he was working with the day before. He said, ‘No, he’s not with me.’ ”

With a sinking feeling and flames devouring the house, Mr. Morales said he called yet another friend, who works in catering and also often employed Mr Herrera. No answer. The caterer soon texted back, asking what was wrong. When Mr. Morales asked if Mr. Herrera was with him, the caterer texted back that he wasn’t.

“That’s when my hopes went down, ” he said.

On Monday, Mr, Morales said he is certain that the fire started in the building’s basement, that “the flames were going up through the first floor” and that he could see a hole burned through the first floor with orange flames licking at its edges.

‘Devastated’

Mr. Herrera worked constantly, juggling numerous odd jobs to make as much money as he could to send home to his mother, Alicia Cruz, in Quezaltepeque, an agricultural town about 110 miles east of Guatemala City, according to friends who attended a Monday memorial for Mr. Herrera at CJ’s American Grill in Mattituck, where the young man worked as a dishwasher.

“He wanted the best for his mom, wanted her to have a better life,” Mr. Morales said. “He had hopes of giving everything to his mom, because his mom was everything to him.”

The dish washing gig was his first staff job with CJ’s, though he’d worked various day jobs for the eatery over the past two years, owner Joanne Richards said. The restaurant’s two chefs are Mr. Herrera’s cousins. At his request, she said, she recently gave him extra shifts.

Mr. Morales said that one of his brothers, who was in Guatemala last week, visited Ms. Cruz at home to break the awful news about her only child.

“She was devastated,” he said.

Mr. Morales and other friends at the memorial described Mr. Herrera as an eternal optimist and a devout Christian.

“He would always tell us that there was something else after we died, that there was a heaven,” Mr. Morales said. “He’d say, ‘If I die, I’ll see you guys on the other side. Don’t be sad if I die. I’ll be happy.’ He was always saying stuff like that.”

When other members of the North Fork’s Guatemalan community passed away, Mr. Herrera was often tasked with assembling memorial tributes.

Mr. Ramirez said that Mr. Herrera was meticulous with details and loved decorating the memorials. He was particularly fond of white flowers, especially white roses.

“He loved to take his time,” Mr. Ramirez said. “He had patience, and he always knew what to do so that everything came out perfect.”

Mr Herrera’s friends said he felt blessed to be living on the North Fork.

“He loved sunsets. Oh my God, he loved sunsets,” Mr. Morales said, recalling with a smile how Mr. Herrera would often drag his friends outside to see the sun go down. He also loved photography and camping, his friends said.

Mr. Morales’ cat, Karen, was also killed in the fire.

“She was a black cat. I loved her, but she didn’t really like to spend time with me,” he said, so Mr. Herrera “would always take care of her. He had videos of her asleep in his arms, and she’s not the type of cat that would do that. She would only do it for him, would only sleep in his arms.”

In less than a week, a GoFundMe page seeking donations for the families displaced by the fire was ended after raising $90,000 from 845 individual donors. Donations for the families are also being accepted at Wendy’s Deli and at CJ’s American Grill.

“I’m really thankful for the whole community helping me and my family out,” Mr. Morales said on Monday night. “I have no words to thank everybody and really appreciate everyone’s support — and for helping my really close friend Edy, who we sadly lost.”