Tutor Time Resumes Business After Evacuation

One week after in West Islip set up shop in the Atlantic Auto Mall after a fire forced them to evacuate, it's back to business as usual.

"It hasn't really affected us," Corinne Burton, director of the child care center, said of the in the neighboring building last week. "It's opened the door for other centers to reach out to us and ask if we need anything, so that's been nice."

The fire, which officials supsect was caused by repairmen working on the roof of the South Bay Commons shopping center, caused the evacuation of 134 children, some as young as 5 months.

The children were welcomed into the nearby Atlantic Auto Mall, who shut down their showroom for two and a half hours to house the kids. Atlantic employees were sent out to buy diapers and formula for the infants, and ordered pizza and soda for the older kids and staff, Burton said.

The children and staff were able to return to Tutor Time after the fire was extinguished. There were no injuries.

Burton said the center received an outpouring of thanks from grateful parents in the days following the fire.

"The parents were very appreciative that all the kids were safe and in good spirits during the evacuation."

The center itself sustained only minor water damage and a few fallen ceiling tiles.