A hellish inferno swept through the East End of Long Island on Saturday, forcing evacuations, choking the sky with thick black smoke, and shutting down the region’s main access road to the exclusive Hamptons. The fires, which erupted across four separate locations, sent panicked residents fleeing as flames devoured homes and businesses in both middle-class neighborhoods and wealthy enclaves alike.

As of Saturday evening, authorities had managed to contain just 50% of the fire, even as Blackhawk helicopters rained thousands of gallons of water onto the blazing terrain. The destruction stretched across a two-mile-long, 2.5-mile-wide area, leaving a scar of devastation as firefighters battled against raging winds that fueled the inferno’s relentless advance.

The fires erupted in Center Moriches, East Moriches, Eastport, and Westhampton, turning Long Island’s typically tranquil East End into a scene of chaos and destruction. Terrified residents described walls of flames consuming the landscape as embers, carried by powerful winds, ignited new blazes with terrifying speed.

With temperatures soaring and gusts whipping through the pine barrens, the fires became nearly impossible to control. Suffolk County Executive Ed Romaine, addressing the crisis from a Westhampton Beach news conference, warned of the fire’s volatility.

“With this wind, a spark will simply ignite it,” Romaine said. “The wind is driving this fire.”

At least one firefighter was hospitalized with second-degree burns to the face, while others suffered minor injuries. The flames also ravaged businesses and infrastructure, forcing the closure of Sunrise Highway, a critical route leading to some of the Hamptons’ most elite neighborhoods.

Authorities have not confirmed the exact cause of the fires, but witnesses reported seeing a car burst into flames on Sunrise Highway shortly before the chaos erupted. That incident, combined with the day’s dangerous weather conditions, may have sparked the cascade of fires.

Governor Kathy Hochul, appearing on CNN, declared a state of emergency, mobilizing National Guard helicopters and multiple state agencies to assist the overwhelmed 90 emergency response teams and 40 fire departments battling the crisis.

“We are in close communication with local partners on Long Island to coordinate assistance and make sure they have the resources they need to protect their communities,” Hochul said in a statement.

But even as resources poured in, a new threat emerged: air quality concerns. The governor announced that 1,000 N95 masks were being distributed to residents as the fires choked the skies with toxic smoke, creating hazardous conditions across Long Island and even as far away as Connecticut.

For longtime residents, the inferno reignited painful memories of the 1995 Sunrise Fire, which burned 4,500 acres of the same pine barrens and destroyed homes before firefighters finally subdued it.

In an eerie parallel, Saturday’s fires also raged near Francis S. Gabreski Airport in Westhampton and the Pine Barrens, further stoking fears that history might be repeating itself.

Brookhaven Town Supervisor Dan Panico took to social media to share aerial footage of the fire’s catastrophic spread, calling it “a massive wildfire” and praising the first responders risking their lives to combat the flames.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)