Massive Fire Damages Homes On Fair Hills Lane In Bridgehampton

Driving down Butter Lane in Bridgehampton on Friday night, June 10, “the whole sky was bright red,” Christine Hoyt said Saturday morning. “It was huge — I couldn’t imagine what was going on.”

A massive fire, fought by over 70 firefighters, destroyed a home on Fair Hills Lane and damaged three neighboring houses. The original house was destroyed; it was empty, and no injuries were reported.

A resident of a house one street over from Fair Hills Lane, Bridge Hill Lane, Hoyt was at Bobby Van’s on Main Street with her husband, Ed, when she heard news of a fire “just off Scuttle Hole Road.”

“Where off Scuttle Hole Road?” she wanted to know, anxious. She learned it was on Fair Hills Lane.

“I was very worried — my daughter was home alone,” she said Saturday morning. “I called her and told her there was a fire on Fair Hills.” Her daughter, Paige, informed her, “You’re not going to be able to get home — all the roads are closed.”

Southampton Town Police closed off Brick Kiln Road, Scuttle Hole Road and Old Sag Harbor Road while firefighters battled the blaze.

According to Bridgehampton Fire Department Chief Nick Hemby, an on-duty Southampton Town fire marshal was first on the scene when the alarm went out at around 10:20 p.m. and found the house at 3 Fair Hills Lane fully engulfed in fire.

It had been burning for quite a while before anyone dialed 911, Hemby said. In fact, “It was so intense that the debris was carried up and down Fair Hills Lane. A large ember even landed on our supply hose, burning a hole in it.”

Calling out for mutual aid to other departments, Bridgehampton Fire Department volunteers attacked the blaze with two engines and a ladder truck. By then it had already spread to two neighboring houses. Neighboring agencies helped battle the intense flames and protect neighboring homes, the chief said in a release Sunday.

In two hours, firefighters had knocked the fire down, but crews remained on the scene to search for pockets of flames. Fire burning in the floor joists underneath the fallen debris in the first house reignited during the early morning hours on Saturday. A call went out for mutual aid, and an excavator was brought in to move the debris so water could reach the flames.

Southampton Town Police initially reported 16 departments had deployed to the scene to provide assistance; according to the chief, there were nine departments on the scene and upward of 70 firefighters battled the blaze.

Bridgehampton, Amagansett, East Hampton, North Sea, Sag Harbor, Springs, Southampton, Hampton Bays and Montauk all worked the conflagration. Suffolk County’s 7th and 9th division coordinators assisted as well, Hemby said.

Bridgehampton’s EMS company oversaw rehab for firefighters throughout the battle. Two firefighters and a third member of the fire service were taken to Stony Brook Southampton Hospital as a precautionary measure, treated and quickly discharged, the chief said. No injuries were reported.

Southampton Village Volunteer Ambulance brought its rehab trailer to the scene, and as the battle wore on, East Hampton Village Ambulance Association and Hampton Bays Volunteer Ambulance Corps were brought to the scene. The Hampton Bays crew also provided coverage for their Southampton Village counterparts while volunteers from the Sag Harbor Ambulance Corps covered Bridgehampton’s district.

Two emergency response units were on hand — from Bridgehampton and Southampton Village — to shuttle equipment and manpower throughout the sprawling scene.

Volunteers from the East Quogue Fire Department stood by at the Bridgehampton Firehouse, with the Shelter Island Fire Department covering at the Sag Harbor Firehouse. With personnel from Hampton Bays covering Southampton, firefighters from Flanders watched over the Hampton Bays fire district.

“We thank our neighboring departments for assisting with this massive effort,” Hemby said.

On Friday, night Hoyt was finally able to get home, and walked over to the scene, arriving at around 11:15 p.m. “By the time we got there, it was under control,” she reported.

The neighbor praised local volunteer fire departments: “I saw Montauk, Springs, Sag Harbor, Southampton and East Hampton. I don’t know how many departments responded. Those guys know what they’re doing. It’s a well-oiled machine.”

Christopher Covert heard the sound of “endless fire engines” racing to the scene at around 10:30 p.m. Friday night. A resident of Chase Court, he said that as soon as he turned down Lumber Lane, “I saw it a mile away, literally.”

Video he shot from a viewpoint looking across a farm field at the top of Lumber Lane near Scuttle Hole Road shows a tremendous cloud of smoke billowing from the blaze, and the lights of numerous fire trucks. “Fifteen seconds tells a pretty good story,” he said.

The house at 3 Fair Hills Lane, the first home to catch fire, is a 5,769- square-foot, six-bedroom, seven-bathroom traditional style house that sold for $5.3 million, according to online real estate listings. An LLC is listed as the owner since December 2021, according to town records. It was built in 2015, according to the property information compiled by Southampton Town.

In all, four houses were damaged, with the original home completely destroyed, a second house severely damaged, a third moderately damaged and a fourth sustaining damage to its roof.

“Firefighters worked hard to prevent the fire from further destruction,” the chief said. The first home was not occupied and two others were safely evacuated.

Southampton Town fire marshals are investigating the cause. The damage was so severe to the first house, that Chief Fire Marshal John Rankin said the investigation may take a while.