Firefighters Battled Massive Blaze at Water Mill Home

Dozens of firefighters battled a Sunday afternoon blaze on Farmstead Lane in Water Mill on May 28.

As of Tuesday, May 30, Southampton Town Chief Fire Marshal John Rankin said it appears that the blaze ignited in the residence’s breezeway — it was not considered suspicious.

The homeowners had been working on the house, painting, staining and conducting general repairs, and left to go into the village, Rankin said. They were not there when the fire broke out.

According to Southampton Town Police, a call of a structure fire went out at 2:42 p.m. They received multiple calls and arrived to find the house heavily engulfed in flames.

Attempts were made to enter the east side of the home to rescue a dog inside the residence, the police report states, adding grimly, “They were not successful.” It is unclear whether the dog escaped or succumbed in the fire.

One firefighter was treated for heat exhaustion; no other injuries were reported.

At 3 p.m., neighbors reported that the sky was pitch black with smoke and the fire was raging. Neighbors could hear glass popping and exploding inside the residence.

By 3:31 p.m., thick black smoke had turned white and steamy, evidence of the effect of water attacking the flames, just as the wind began to pick up. The funnel of smoke could be seen all the way to the Ponquogue Bridge in Hampton Bays and reportedly on the North Fork.

The smoke was quite close to Ann Lombardo’s house, about a mile and a half north “as the crow flies,” from the scene.

She was relaxing in her home on Deer Run, when she first heard the sirens.

She looked up from her book, she said, and “I was blown away.”

The scene is across a swath of farm fields from her home. The wind was taking the smoke in an easterly direction. But, she said, “I could hear when they brought the cherry picker, the water pounding on the fire.”

Firefighters from Southampton, Bridgehampton, Hampton Bays, North Sea, Sag Harbor, East Hampton and East Quogue all responded. Southampton Volunteer Ambulance and Southampton Village Ambulance were on the scene for firefighter assessment, officials said.

This was the third large fire this week in the Town of Southampton, the fourth on the South Fork that called out firefighters from an array of departments, from Montauk to Center Moriches.

Three occupants of an East Quogue home were able to escape unharmed after the house on Bayside Avenue caught fire Tuesday afternoon, May 23. The next day, a home in Remsenburg was gutted by flames. The day after that, the site of the former Rick’s Crabby Cowboy on East Lake Drive was consumed, and destroyed by fire.