Fire Destroys Former Montauk Highway Motel in Hampton Bays

Fire ravaged an apartment building in Hampton Bays on Friday, April 1, leaving a number of tenants homeless. The Hampton Bays Fire Department was called to the fire on East Montauk Highway at 3:42 p.m. and continued working the site for hours, finishing up at 9 p.m.

Chief James Kappers was first on the scene at 3:45 p.m. and found the building fully engulfed. All occupants had been cleared out of the building. During the early moments of the blaze, Town Code Compliance and Emergency Management Administrator Ryan Murphy said all of the residents of the building had been accounted for.

“The only thing unaccounted for are four missing cats as far as we know right now,” he said Friday afternoon.

Southampton Town Police reported the closure of the highway westbound at Peconic Road at 3:55 p.m. By 4:11 p.m., both lanes had been closed from North Road at the west to Peconic Road.

The first pumper truck to arrive sustained damage to its undercarriage on the steep overgrown driveway. Department spokesman Michael Zarro was on that first truck and on scene within minutes. He said you could feel the heat radiating from the blaze as far as 20 feet away. “That building went up quickly,” he said.

In all, the fire department sent its two pumper trucks, a tanker truck, a lighting and rescue truck, and an aerial platform truck, as well as its contingent of fire police to the scene. Southampton Fire Department sent an engine and also deployed its rapid intervention team to the scene, to stand by in case firefighters working on the interior became trapped.

Given the condition of the building, however, there was fear of a roof collapse and most of the work to cut down the flames took place as an exterior attack, Zarro explained.

Firefighters from the Flanders Volunteer Fire Department provided assistance, standing by at the Hampton Bays Firehouse. Hampton Bays ambulance was on the scene to offer aid to firefighters; one was injured, treated, and released at the scene, Zarro said.

By 4:46 p.m., the bulk of the fire had been knocked down. The rest of the early evening’s work focused on hitting hot spots.

PSEG-LI and National Grid both sent teams to the fire and Suffolk County was called to clear the road after debris from the blaze slid down the hill and onto Montauk Highway. The Red Cross was also notified of displaced residents, Zarro said.

The property, located at 317 East Montauk Highway, is described as a 13-unit apartment complex, owned by L Squared, Victor La Terra’s company. It includes two structures and there are pending code enforcement charges there, town officials said. There is also a pending lawsuit that La Terra filed in federal court in 2020, accusing the town of targeting his business because his tenants were predominantly Latino.

The fire was in the front building closest to Montauk Highway. That building has multiple apartments.

Fire marshals were on the scene by late Friday afternoon. Preliminary indications suggest the fire started in one of the downstairs apartments.

Murphy reported that when they arrived on the scene, fire marshals spoke with a tenant who said he’d left a pot of rice cooking on the stove and went out, only to return to find smoke. With the investigation still underway as of Monday, April 7, Murphy said the office wasn’t ready to list that as the fire’s main cause, though it certainly could have been a contributing factor.

For Spanish-language reporting on this story, visit tuprensalocal.com.