Two Injured as Shinnecock Hills Fire Destroys House
Two men were injured—one with second and third degree burns—when they fled from a burning house Wednesday in Shinnecock Hills.
Firefighters were dispatched to 18 Greenfield Road at 5:55 p.m. Southampton Fire Department 2nd Assistant Chief Chris Brenner said he was first on scene and found the two-story house to be fully engulfed in fire, with flames coming out of every window.
The two men inside the house made it outside just as Brenner was arriving, and they got a dog out of the house too. Brenner said a cat made it out of the house on its own, though there may have been other pets inside the house whose fate he is uncertain of.
North Sea Fire Department was called in to assist Southampton firefighters in battling the blaze. Hampton Bays Fire Department send a rapid intervention team and Bridgehampton Fire Department sent a crew to stand by at the Southampton firehouse in case another fire broke out in the district while Southampton firefighters were indisposed.
Firefighters attacked the flames from the outside of the house only because of how much the fire spread, Brenner said. It was very hard to get to certain sections of the fire, he added.
The fire took three hours to extinguish, and firefighters stayed on scene longer to “mop up” Brenner said. Chief Dennis Roy was in charge.
Southampton Volunteer Ambulance and Hampton Bays Volunteer Ambulance responded to the scene. Both of the occupants of the house were taken to Southampton Hospital, and one was immediately transferred to the Suffolk County Burn Center at Stony Brook, Brenner said.
The house at 18 Greenfield Road had been the subject of code enforcement and town board scrutiny. Investigators said the property “is dangerous and unsafe and is not being maintained because there is raw sewage running out onto the property and a large amount of garbage, rubbish, litter and debris is being accumulated on the property…”