Firefighters in New York were continuing to battle at least one brush fire in a wooded stretch of Long Island on Sunday with the wealthy coastal enclave of the Hamptons vulnerable and officials warning that high wind gusts threatened to ignite further blazes.
The state’s Democratic governor, Kathy Hochul, declared a state of emergency on Saturday after four separate fires broke out. The flames were spreading across large swaths of the narrow strip of barrier land that stretches for more than 100 miles east from New York City out towards the Atlantic Ocean.
A huge fire in Long Island’s Pine Barrens region prompted road closures and evacuations of a military base.
As of Sunday morning, three of the fires had been contained, while one was still burning in the hamlet of Westhampton, according to Michael Martino, a spokesperson for Suffolk county executive Ed Romaine.
Local fire crews, as well as the air national guard, worked through the night, containing roughly 80% of the blaze, according to Martino.
He said the Suffolk county police department’s arson squad had initiated an investigation into the blaze, though there was no immediate evidence to suggest arson.
At least two commercial structures had been damaged. One firefighter was flown to a hospital to be treated for burns to the face on Saturday.
Massive clouds of smoke billowed and flames towered over the Sunrise highway that leads to the Hamptons, the string of historic seaside communities flanked by magnificent sandy beaches with rolling waves and dotted with summer mansions of the rich and famous.
According to the National Weather Service, wind gusts of up to 30mph were expected on Sunday, making it more difficult to extinguish parts that were still burning.
“Our biggest problem is the wind,” Romaine said at an earlier news conference. “It is driving this fire.”
Roughly 15 miles west, officials were monitoring a small brush fire along Sunrise highway early on Sunday, Brookhaven town supervisor Daniel Panico said.
