Firefighters are making progress battling a series of brush fires on Long Island that burned over 400 hundred acres of land and prompted evacuations east of New York City, local officials say.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul declared a state of emergency on Saturday in response to the brush fires in Suffolk County, including Long Island, where plumes of ashy gray smoke rose so high over the weekend that they could be seen from Connecticut.
Local officials said Sunday that the work of volunteer firefighters and other first responders helped get the blazes under control. "This was a very big fire that could have created big problems, if not for all of us coming together to solve it and address it," Suffolk County Executive Ed Romaine said in a news conference.
Romaine said authorities were watching to make sure the fires, which were fueled by downed trees and fanned by 35 mile-per-hour winds, didn't restart. "We are concerned, because the winds are still blowing, that it might spark up again," he said.
Long Island and other parts of southeastern New York were under an elevated wildfire risk on Sunday due to dry and windy weather. The National Weather Service said strong winds in the forecast could quickly spread any fires that ignited, but that higher relative humidity in the afternoon would help reduce any danger.
Rudy Sunderman, commissioner of the Suffolk County Department of Fire, Rescue and Emergency Services, said Sunday that the fires were completely "knocked down," which means there are no visible flames. But he added that the blazes are only 22% contained, which means that a firebreak has been established around the perimeter of the area to control the fire.
Hochul had said on Saturday that the fires were burning in a part of Suffolk County near an Amazon facility, a chemical plant, and Gabreski Airport in Westhampton Beach.
More than 90 fire departments and EMS agencies were on scene, and the New York Army National Guard deployed four helicopters to conduct water drops.
Part of Sunrise Highway was temporarily closed as the fires burned on Saturday. Airmen and civilians were evacuated from the F.S. Gabreski Air National Guard Base.
At least two firefighters were hospitalized with injuries — one suffering second-degree burns to the face and another with a head injury — but both were later released.
Suffolk County Police Commissioner Kevin Catalina said investigators were beginning to look into what sparked the fires — and whether they were natural or caused by humans.
"We're going to get to the bottom of what happened," Catalina said.
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