Crime & Safety

Update: Brush Fire Burns More Than 3 Acres off Vets Highway

Westbound Route 347 remains closed as of 4:30 p.m. Tuesday afternoon.

A large brush fire burned more than 3 acres of town and county parks off Veterans Memorial Highway on Tuesday afternoon. 

"This is a very large brush fire, it’s larger than most around here," said  Michael Landrigan, second assistant chief of Smithtown Fire Department. 

Firefighters from six fire departments battled for 90 minutes to bring the brush fire under control, according to Landrigan, as rising smoke was visible as far away away as Hauppauge High School. 

Suffolk County police received a 911 call at roughly 2:30 p.m. Tuesday reporting 
heavy smoke off Veterans Memorial Highway/Route 347 in the Hauppauge-Smithtown area, near Raynor's Way. 

Firefighters from Smithtown, Commack, Hauppauge, Kings Park and Nesconset were called to the scene but had a hard time reaching the site of the fire, roughly opposite Phoenix House on the north side of Veterans Memorial Highway/Route 347. 

"It was very dry and hard to get access into the area due to all the debris and brush," Landrigan said. "It’s a very thickly wooded area so we couldn’t get our apparatus in there."

Firefighters reached out to to Lakeland and Brentwood fire departments for additional stump jumper trucks to reach the fire, as the Town of Smithtown was called for payloaders to plow a path for the firetrucks. 

Landrigan said an additional problem was the only fire hydrants - the main source of water - were located outside the park on Route 347. 

Once inside the parklands, one firefighter said, "there was so much dead leaves and debris, it was probably two-feet high." 

Landrigan said while the dry weather and seasonal leaves likely contributed to size of the fire, what started it was unknown on Tuesday night. 

The brush fire caused Suffolk County Police to close down westbound Veterans Highway/Route 347 for several hours Tuesday afternoon into evening, diverting traffic onto Raynor's Way into the state office buildings parking lot. 

Original Story

Firefighters are combating the second brush fire to break out along Veterans Memorial Highway this week. 

Suffolk County Police said they received a 911 call reporting a brush fire near 220 Veterans Memorial Highway/Route 347 in the Hauppauge-Smithtown area on Tuesday afternoon. 

Police have closed down westbound Veterans Memorial Highway/Route 347 as of 2:30 p.m., and traffic is still being diverted as of 4:26 p.m 

Hauppauge Fire Department has responded to the scene. Police say the fire is off Veterans Memorial Highway near Simeon Wood Road. 

This is the second brush fire to be reported in the Hauppauge-Smithtown area off Veterans Memorial Highway this week. A brush fire at Blydenburgh County Park closed at least one lane in each direction on Veterans Memorial Highway in Hauppauge for a couple of hours Monday morning, Suffolk County police said.

Special thanks to Patch reader Nicole McKee who sent over this picture of the brush fire from a distance. 
 


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