NOYAC, NY – Two years after a devastating fire ravaged a Noyac vacation home and killed two sisters vacationing there with their family, the home’s owners have pleaded guilty, Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney said.

On Monday, Tierney announced that 56-year-old Peter Miller had pleaded guilty to two counts of involuntary manslaughter and 55-year-old Pamela Miller had pleaded guilty to second-degree reckless endangerment. The two defendants pleaded guilty following a fatal fire at the Millers’ rental home, where Maryland sisters Lindsay Wiener, 19, and Jillian Wiener, 21, were vacationing with their family in 2022.

Both sisters died in the fire, Tierney said.

According to court documents and the defendants’ confessions during their guilty pleas, on August 2, 2022, a Maryland couple and their three children, including Lindsay and Jillian, were vacationing at the Millers’ home in Noyac, which was listed for rent.

That evening, the family attempted to use a charcoal grill located in an outdoor kitchen adjacent to the main house, the prosecutor said.

When the food wasn’t cooked, the family took it off the grill, closed the lid and cooked it in the indoor kitchen, Tierney said. The family ate dinner and then went to sleep around 11:30 p.m., the prosecutor said.

A few hours later, on August 3, 2022, at around 3:30 a.m., the mother and father woke up to the sound of shattering glass, the prosecutor said.

When they left their bedroom to investigate, they saw fire in the kitchen and screamed for their children to get out of the house, Tierney said. The couple managed to escape, but their father, Lew Wiener,
entered the house again to look for his children, the prosecutor said.

Due to the heat, he had to leave the house and suffered burns on his feet.

The couple’s son opened his bedroom door but was overwhelmed by the heat and smoke and could not find his sisters, the prosecutor said.

When the son realized he was trapped in his bedroom, he jumped out a second-story window to escape, Tierney said.

The Sag Harbor Fire Department was the first of several fire departments to arrive at the scene, Tierney said. Fire chiefs noted fire in the kitchen, thick black smoke and intense heat, officials said.

Firefighters gained access to a second-floor bedroom, where they found the girls, Tierney said.

Both young women were taken to Southampton Hospital where they succumbed to their injuries, the prosecutor said.

Surviving family members and firefighters reported that no fire alarms were triggered.
could not be heard at any time, said the prosecutor.

Investigators concluded that the fire started in the outdoor kitchen, which the Millers built on their own without a permit and without first checking the electrical wiring, Tierney said.

The outdoor kitchen was mostly made of wood with low wooden ceilings that were above the
Charcoal grill and gas stove; the lower grill openings of the charcoal grill were completely blocked
through a connected counter and the electrical circuits that the outdoor kitchen shared with the indoor kitchen
The pipes in the kitchen were overloaded and not properly wired, the prosecutor said.

The Millers listed the Noyac rental home on several popular vacation rental websites.
Tierney said the home was equipped with smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, according to the complaint, but an electrical inspection report found they were not properly connected and there was insufficient fire detection throughout the home, the prosecutor said.

The smoke detector in one of the second-floor bedrooms was disabled by the fire due to overloaded circuits and did not have a working battery backup; the smoke detector in another second-floor bedroom, where Lindsay and Jillian lived, was also disabled during the fire and did not have a working battery backup, Tierney said.

The smoke detector in the master bedroom, where the sisters’ parents lived, was unplugged and did not have a battery backup. It was determined that there was no adequate fire detection in the master bedroom and the hallway outside at the time of the fire, the prosecutor said.

According to the prosecutor, the Millers were accused of 29 code of conduct violations, including:

– Failure to apply for and obtain rental approval prior to rental;

– a temporary rental if this is prohibited by law;

– temporary rental to tenants contrary to the present rental agreement certificate;

– Construction of an outdoor kitchen without building permit, occupancy/approval of a
Terrace/pool without usage permit;

– Missing installation of single/multiple smoke detectors on the outside wall of the second
Bedroom on the ground floor;

– Failure to ensure that the smoke detector in the east bedroom on the second floor was connected
correct;

– Not sure that the smoke detector in the east floor bedroom had a battery
security;

– Not ensured that the smoke detector in the hallway outside the bedroom on the first floor
correctly connected;

– Not ensured that the smoke detector in the hallway outside the bedroom on the first floor
a battery emergency power supply;

– Not ensuring that the smoke detector in the garage is properly connected to a power supply
Source;

– Failure to ensure that a carbon monoxide detector was installed outside the second floor.
bedroom;

– Failure to ensure that a carbon monoxide detector was installed outside the first floor.
bedroom;

– Installation of a socket without a corresponding distribution box, which causes an electrical
Risk of electric shock/fire as it was standing directly on the siding; and

– Installing an electrical outlet on a counter in the outdoor kitchen without proper electrical
This created an electric shock/fire hazard even though it was located directly on the exterior panel.

The Millers were charged with breaches of the code of conduct in the Southampton City Court.

On Aug. 22, Peter and Pamela Miller were arrested after turning themselves in to the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office, Tierney said. On Monday, Peter Miller pleaded guilty before Acting Superior Court Judge Richard I. Horowitz to two counts of involuntary manslaughter, a Class E felony, the prosecutor said. Also on Monday, Pamela Miller pleaded guilty before Judge Horowitz to second-degree reckless endangerment, a Class A misdemeanor, Tierney said.

The Millers will appear in court again on November 7 and will be represented by Edward
Burke Jr. said he had no comment at this time.

“First and foremost, our deepest sympathies go out to the Wiener family who lost these young women in this tragic fire. Such a loss is unimaginable and our community mourns with them,” Tierney said. “We take all matters related to housing codes very seriously as they are critical to public safety. If you own a rental property, you have an obligation to ensure it is safe.”

The holiday was meant to be a special time for the Wieners because their father, Lew, had cancer, he told Patch; according to his obituary, he died this April.