Brush Fire Along Sunrise Highway on Monday Could Have Been a 'Very Different Story,' Firefighters Say

Firefighters from the East Quogue Fire Department and the Hampton Bays Fire Department were able to snuff out a rapidly spreading brush fire that ignited along the side of Sunrise Highway during the Monday evening rush hour — in what a fire chief said could have been a much worse situation.

The fire broke out Monday, October 14, between exits 65 and 66, where the highway runs through Sears Bellows County Park and the eastern reaches of the Pine Barrens — just a few miles east of where the infamous August 1995 Sunrise Wildfire scorched more than 5,500 acres of woodlands on either side of the highway.

The westbound lanes of the highway were closed for about 90 minutes at the height of the rush hour, causing an expansive traffic jam to the east of the scene, while firefighters battled the flames on the roadside.

East Quogue Fire Chief Paul Sulzinski said that fire could have been very bad had the high winds that fanned the flames been blowing from a slightly different direction.

“We were a bit lucky, it was west winds, and it stayed below the berm. But if we had an onshore wind, it would have blown up over the berm and there’s nothing there but Pine Barrens and dry brush,” Sulzinski said on Tuesday. “With that wind — and it’s been so dry so everything is very dried out — it could have been a very different story.”

The chief said that about 40 volunteer firefighters from the two departments responded to the fire on Monday evening. The departments were alerted at about 6:20 p.m. and had crews on scene within a few minutes. The fire appeared to have been burning unnoticed for a while, he said.

Firefighters extinguished the creeping fronts of flames with water, then started turning over clumps of dried pine needles and soaking them to ensure it did not reignite.

Sulzinski said that Southampton Town fire marshal office’s was still investigating the exact cause of the fire, but said it appeared to have started on the roadside and was likely ignited by a discarded cigarette or mechanical spark from a vehicle.