Putnam County - Police captain, wife, 2 daughters die in Carmel house fire

CARMEL — veteran Larchmont police captain, his wife and two teenage daughters died in a house fire this morning, and his son remains hospitalized, authorities said.

Thomas Sullivan, 48, and wife Donna, 47, and their family were trapped inside the house on Wyndham Lane when the first emergency responders arrived, Larchmont police Sgt. Ronald Knudson said.

“His son was the only one who made it out, in a family of five,” Knudson said. “His wife and two daughters perished with Tommy. His son is in the hospital and we don’t know his status.”

Carmel Police Chief Michael Johnson said the fire was so hot when the first officers responded to a 911 call from a neighbor at 1:15 a.m. that the flames melted the siding of two nearby houses.

A 20-year old man, presumably Sullivan’s son, Thomas Jr., escaped from the blazing home and told the first police officers who arrived that his family was trapped inside, both parents and children. The man suffered smoke inhalation.

Because of the heat, firefighters were not able to enter the blazing home.

It took until 5 a.m. to bring the fire under control.

“Right now a recovery effort is under way to determine the cause of the fire and to determine how many victims there may be in there,” Johnson said shortly after 7 a.m. today.

Police have scheduled a news conference at 9:30 a.m. to release more information on the fire.

Larchmont’s police chief and a lieutenant were at the scene of the tragedy this morning, Knudson said.

“We’re just waiting for everybody to get back here and regroup,” Knudson said.

Some of Sullivan’s relatives are en route from Vancouver and Long Island, Knudson said.

Sullivan had been with the department for about 15 years, after serving six or seven years in the Bronx with the New York City Police Department.

“He was a dedicated law enforcement individual, an extremely great family man, and a diehard Mets fan,” Knudson said. “His life revolved around his family and his job.”

In 1992, shortly after he joined the Larchmont department, then-Sgt. Sullivan told The Journal News: “I came up here to get more of a community-based police department. When you're on regular patrol down there (the Bronx), you're running from one detail to the next, and you're really seeing people at their worst points.” On the beat in Larchmont, he said, ''you have more time to help people. ''

Four or five television news trucks were reporting from the fire this morning, but police were keeping them and other media away from the fire scene.