The North Sea Fire Department was called to a residential fire on Knoll Road Sunday, September 27, at 1:23 p.m. Second Assistant Chief Richard White, first on the scene, observed flames blowing out of windows at both the front and the rear of the modest two-story structure.
The sole inhabitant of the home was out of the house when volunteers arrived, officials said. She was checked out by first responders from Southampton Volunteer Ambulance Corps and transported to Stony Brook Southampton Hospital, according to Chief Brian Robinson.
Two engines, a heavy rescue truck, and two fire police units from North Sea deployed to the scene. The Sag Harbor Fire Department offered mutual aid in the form of an engine, and the Southampton Fire Department sent its Rapid Intervention Team, to stand by in case someone needed to be rescued from the flames.
The call originally came in as a couch fire. Chief Robinson said the official cause of the blaze has not yet been determined, but the living room of the house appeared to be the epicenter. “The whole living room was fully engulfed, “ he said.
Volunteer firefighters implemented what’s known as a “transitional attack” to fight the fire. First, they knocked flames down from the outside of the house, then moved on to an interior attack. Once the main body of the fire was extinguished, firefighters moved to an “overhaul,” using tools to open up walls to ensure there were no hidden embers that could restart flames anew.
The house, according to Chief Robinson, sustained heavy damage to the first floor. No firefighters were injured, and the fire was put out within a half-hour. Approximately 30 volunteers from the North Sea Fire Department arrived to fight the fire.
The department had an unusually busy weekend, Chief Robinson said — seven calls in two days, though none as dramatic as the Knoll Road blaze. Firefighters responded to a vehicular accident on Marys Lane, and stood by for a water rescue in Cold Spring Harbor when a sailboat was reported late for its planned return on Saturday afternoon. The boat had becalmed, and simply arrived later than expected.
Adding in a number of automatic fire alarms — some of which were canceled by homeowners — the hectic two day time frame was, the chief said, “a fluke weekend.”
