Mutual Departments Battle Blaze at Home on Linda Lane in Hampton Bays

The Hampton Bays Fire Department responded to a structure fire on Linda Lane that lit up the nighttime skies in the early morning hours of February 1.

At 12:21 a.m., a neighbor of the ranch home on the residential street called to report a large body of fire and smoke coming from the area, and the department responded, first battling the blaze at the rear of the house before moving inside. The fire was raging on the ground floor, in the basement and in the attic when crews arrived, and they had the fire knocked down and under control within 15 minutes.

Hampton Bays Fire Chief Rick Nydegger said that the home was unoccupied, although he pointed out that the responders were not sure of that when they arrived, so they operated with the understanding that someone could possibly be inside.

Nydegger said the house had just been purchased at the end of December, and the homeowners had been spending several weeks remodeling and updating the home. Contractors had been there working in the evenings for the past several weeks, although no one was currently living in the home, and it was not yet furnished.

The cause of the fire was still unknown as of Sunday afternoon.

Nydegger offered more details on the way the crews handled the fire. He said that engine crews knocked down the main body of the fire from the exterior of the building using a transitional attack before going down into the basement to extinguish the rest of the fire. There was structural floor collapse in the living room, and firefighters needed to cut windows open to make them into a passageway and also breach walls in order to search for any potential occupants and to successfully extinguish the fire. While that damage was extensive, Nydegger added that roughly half of the house had smoke damage only.

While crews fought the fire, Ponquogue Avenue was shut down for access to a positive water supply, and Fire Police secured the road.

It was the fourth structure fire of the year for the Hampton Bays department, but Nydegger said that was more of a coincidence and that there wasn’t any uniting reason for the high number of fires in a short period of time.

He said it was a good opportunity, however, to remind people to stay vigilant, and make sure all their smoke detectors are in working order and to have fire extinguishers present in the home.

Nydegger emphasized how fortunate his department is to have the support of several nearby departments. Fire departments from East Quogue, Flanders and Southampton provided mutual aid, and the Hampton Bays Volunteer Ambulance Corps was also on the scene, as well as the Suffolk Fire Rescue Coordinator.