One of the several fires that broke out on Long Island yesterday continued to burn on Sunday after fire crews and the Air National Guard worked through the night. The Westhampton Pines Fire, as officials are now calling it, started around 1 p.m. on Saturday with blazes in Moriches, East Moriches, Eastport, all of which have been fully “knocked down” but not contained, and Westhampton, where emergency services’ efforts are ongoing. It is the largest fire in the area since the infamous Sunrise fire of 1995, which burned for more than ten days, shocking onlookers when it jumped across the 400-foot-wide gap of the Sunrise highway.
Speaking at a press conference on Sunday morning, officials expressed cautious optimism regarding their efforts to put out the blaze. “We are concerned because the winds are still blowing and it might spark up again, and we have people out all over the place,” said Suffolk County Executive Ed Romaine, though he later added that “this fire is not the threat that it was yesterday.” The state’s Department of Environmental Conservation Commissioner, Amanda Lefton, said that there was little risk of threat to air quality due to the high winds, adding that “we can say confidently that the fire is under control, we’re working hard on a full containment around the area.” Commissioner of fire rescue and emergency services Rudy Sunderman explained that while the 400-acre fire that continues to burn in Westhampton was 100% “knocked down,” meaning that there are no visible flames, it remains only 22% “contained,” meaning that only that proportion of the fire has line formed by firefighters preventing it from spreading further.
Two firefighters have been injured so far, one with 2nd degree burns to the face and another with a head injury, both of whom are being treated at local area hospitals. Over 600 first responders from nearly 90 volunteer departments have converged on the fire, along with air support from the National Guard.
The Westhampton Pines Fire marks the second unusual fire in the Northeast since last fall, when blazes broke out across the East coast, from Maryland to Massachusetts, due to dry conditions and high winds at the end of October.
