All Hands On Deck

It was a moment in time that everyone will remember: The Pine Barrens were on fire, threatening to burn the Village of Westhampton Beach to the ground.

The village was spared, as was most of the residential property in the path of the devastating blaze, and, miraculously, no one was killed or even seriously hurt. But it took more than a village — a blessing from Mother Nature came in the form of changed wind direction — to save Westhampton Beach 25 years ago from the four-day forest fire, which began on August 24, 1995. That blaze, one of the worst in New York State history, has come to be known as the Sunrise Wildfire.

It took the selfless grit and determination of thousands of firefighters from companies all over the East End, and all across Long Island, and even from New York City, to knock the fire back. It was all hands on deck, and those who came to the rescue faced down a nightmare.

Fighting the Sunrise Wildfire, with its 200-foot-tall flames that leapt from treetop to treetop and jumped the 400-foot width of Sunrise Highway despite their best efforts, was nothing short of a herculean task — it was “a week from hell,” as one of those firefighters, Bo Bishop, a 30-year veteran of the Westhampton Beach Fire Department, the “Sons of the Beach,” recalled this week.

Day became night as the clouds of smoke darkened the sky, lit only by the flames, and ash fell everywhere. Westhampton residents were evacuated to the nearby community college in Speonk, fearing for their homes and businesses.

Firefighters set up many stands, hoping to stop the fire in its tracks, but were continually pushed back as the blaze circled around and above them. After four days, they were finally successful in containing and extinguishing the fire.

The largest forest fire in New York State since 1908, the blaze destroyed 5,500 acres of the Central Pine Barrens, the forest that protects our sole-source aquifer — which provides all the drinking water on the South Fork.

Before it was over, approximately 2,500 firefighters, state and federal fire officials responded to the blaze, including 174 local fire departments from Suffolk and Nassau counties. Even members of the Fire Department of New York, sirens wailing and lights flashing in a 30-minute drive from the city — expedited by New York Police Department escorts — fought the fire in one of the largest mutual aid calls in state history.

It’s important to note that the lion’s share of those firefighters, who were literally fighting for their own lives and the lives of their friends and neighbors, were volunteers, brave men and women who regularly put their lives on the line for no other reward than knowing that their families are safe at night.

The community owes a huge debt of gratitude to those who fought the Sunrise Wildfire a quarter century ago, but also to the brave volunteers who day in and day out choose to protect their communities.

The Sunrise Wildfire may be a once-in-a-lifetime event — we can only hope so — but our local firefighters stand ready on a daily basis to face life’s harshest moments: fires, car crashes and other tragedies, without expectation of anything in return, ready and definitely able to always come to the rescue when needed. The Sunrise Wildfire was just a reminder of the heroes in our midst every day.