Hundreds of family, friends and police officers pay their respects on the first of two days of public viewings for the four Sullivan family members killed in Tuesday's fire. YNN's John Wagner has the story.

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CARMEL, N.Y. -- "We're just very sad," said Geri Munnick, a teacher of Mairead Sullivan. "We don't know what to say."

Reality is just now hitting home. Their home lost. Larchmont Police Captain Tommy Sullivan Sr., his wife, Donna, and their teenage daughters, Meaghan and Mairead, also lost after Tuesday's fire. Tommy Jr. left as the sole survivor.

"This is not the hardest point right now," said Craig Stofko, a friend of Tommy Sr. "It's going to get harder for him, but everybody is going to stand by him."

"Some of us are remembering days when it was little league games and pool parties and now we're talking about getting the community through this," said Putnam County Executive MaryEllen Odell, a close friend of the Sullivan family.

Town of Carmel police detectives said they spent more than three hours with Tommy Jr. on Wednesday, clarifying details and revealing more on what actually happened. Investigators are set to reconvene early next week.

"We're still a community in shock, I don't think that we've had enough time. This has happened so fast," said Odell.

"Everybody's just sitting, hugging, consoling," said Munnick.

Instead of caskets, a row of four wooden square urns, with a cross and a picture of the deceased on each. Two Larchmont police officers stood on both sides of the row.

"I was speechless, then I went over to Mairead, who was my student and I just broke down as soon as I saw her picture," said Munnick.

"It's hard to put in words, especially when you try to think what the family went through," said Stofko, who spent a number of weekends hanging out with Tommy Sullivan Sr. at car shows.

While the community awaits state police lab results on how this could have happened, Carmel Town Police say out of respect for the family, no new details will be revealed until after Saturday's funeral.

"As we adults are having trouble processing it, the kids, you know, this is overwhelming," said Odell.