Multiple wildfires break out on Long Island, prompting highway closure
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One of multiple bushfires burning on Long Island on March 8.
PHOTO: ARITZ PARRA/NYTIMES
Claire Fahy
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NEW YORK - Multiple wildfires broke out on New York’s Long Island on March 8, amid high-risk fire conditions of low humidity and gusty winds, forcing the closure of sections of a highway in Suffolk County and drawing the response of more than two dozen agencies.
Mr Bill Dalton, a former chief of the Westhampton Beach Fire Department who is helping coordinate his department’s response, said several departments have deployed brush trucks, which are smaller fire trucks designed to fight wildfires.
Helicopters and drones have been mobilised to get a bird’s-eye view of the fires, which stretched in a 7-mile (11.2km) radius in the area around Westhampton and Eastport on the South Shore.
“We have a lot of assets on the ground, lot of communication as to where the hot spots are,” he said. “They’re popping up all over.”
Images on social media showed billowing black smoke. The Westhampton Fire Department said that there had been no injuries and no evacuation orders were currently in place.
The New York State Police confirmed that all lanes of the Sunrise Highway were closed eastbound at Exit 62 and westbound at Exit 65.
Governor Kathy Hochul said the fires were in the Pine Barrens, a 105,000-acre nature park. The governor declared a state of emergency on the afternoon of March 8, said a spokesperson, Avi Small.
“We are in close communication with local partners on Long Island to coordinate assistance and make sure they have the resources they need to protect their communities,” Ms Hochul said on social media.
By the evening of March 8, Mr Ed Romaine, the Suffolk County executive, said that more than 80 agencies were involved in fighting three fires in eastern Long Island. “The National Guard has begun water dumps,” he said in a statement.
Fire trucks and crews from the Air National Guard base in Westhampton Beach were deployed, as well as a New York Army National Guard helicopter, the New York National Guard said in a news release.
The National Weather Service had warned earlier on social media that low humidity and northwest winds of 30 to 35mph would create an “elevated risk for fire spread.”
On March 8, the forecast materialised.
“We have gusty north-to-northwest winds, and they’re making it difficult to contain any fires that develop,” Mr Jay Engle, a weather service meteorologist said of conditions on Long Island on March 8.
Winds are expected to calm overnight and humidity levels will increase, giving firefighters a break. But the winds are expected to return March 9.
“There will be heightened fire risk again tomorrow,” Mr Engle said.
“Use extreme caution with all potential ignition sources (machinery, cigarettes, matches),” the weather service said. “Any fires may spread quickly.”
About 20 miles west, in the Sheepshead Bay neighborhood of Brooklyn, another brush fire broke out around 1pm on March 8 (2am, March 9 in Singapore).
New York City Fire Department crews and marine units responded, as did local volunteer firefighters and New York City Police Department helicopters. Crews were clearing that fire around 4pm, the Fire Department said. Fire marshals were investigating the cause. NYTIMES
Amy Graff and Simon J. Levien contributed reporting.
