Fire Closed Dune Road in Westhampton

Dune Road in Quogue was closed in both directions for about two hours on Wednesday, October 26, as firefighters extinguished a fire in a garage.

The Quogue Fire Department was paged out for a structure fire shortly after noon. The Westhampton Beach Fire Department also responded as part of an automatic mutual aid plan.

The fire was called in by a passerby and was verified shortly thereafter by Quogue Village Police Department officers and by Ted Jankowski, the chief of the East Quogue Fire Department, who happened to be in the vicinity.

Quogue Second Assistant Chief Dave Schaffauer and Westhampton Beach Second Assistant Chief Larry Saccente arrived on scene simultaneously. They reported heavy black smoke coming from a garage attached to a pool house near the front of the oceanside property.

A Westhampton Beach engine arrived a few minutes after the chiefs, followed shortly by a Quogue engine and Quogue Chief Mike Nelson, who assumed command.

Firefighters were able to force open the garage doors and commenced pouring water on the fire, which was contained to the garage area. The volunteers were hampered by the dense smoke and by numerous pieces of outdoor furniture, a barbecue grill, and other items that were being stored in the garage for the winter.

The fire was quickly extinguished, but the firefighters had to spend the next hour and a half doing overhaul, which entailed tearing out drywall and wood roof shingles in search of residual pockets of fire.

The Westhampton Beach Fire Department responded with three chiefs, an engine and fire police. Quogue responded with three engines, four chiefs and two fire police vehicles. The East Quogue Fire Department sent one engine and two chiefs.

The Westhampton War Memorial Ambulance, the Flanders Northampton Volunteer Ambulance Company, the Quogue Village Police Department, and the Westhampton Village Police Department were also on scene, as were the Southampton Town fire marshal and a Suffolk County Fire and Rescue coordinator.

There were no reported injuries. The cause of the fire is under investigation.