Working for at least three hours, over 100 firefighters battled a house fire in Bridgehampton that is believed to have erupted after a lightning strike during a storm in the early morning hours on Sunday.

Bridgehampton Fire Department Chief Gary Horsburgh said the call began with an automatic fire alarm at 10 Bridge Hill Lane at 1:52 a.m.

Second Assistant Chief Jeff White and a captain responded to investigate and smelled smoke coming from the basement. "It was so still, hot, and humid that the smoke was just lingering around," Chief Horsburgh said.

Chiefs immediately requested assistance from the nearby Sag Harbor Fire Department's rapid intervention team, which stands by in case firefighters need to be rescued. "Then we had to put them to work, so I called the Southampton Fire Department's R.I.T. team, but then I had to put them to work too," Chief Horsburgh said, adding that more manpower was needed due to the hot and humid conditions. The North Sea, Springs, East Hampton, and Hampton Bays Fire Departments were called in.

No one was in the house when the fire broke out, and no injuries were reported.

"It started in the basement. It was burning pretty good," Chief Horsburgh said. "It burnt a hole in the floor, came up to the first floor, and burnt the whole west wing. It's completely destroyed," he said, adding that the east side of the two-story house has water and smoke damage.

Though firefighters didn't see any obvious signs of a lightning strike, they believe lightning sparked the blaze. The chief said a neighbor reported hearing "a great big bang and everything in his house shook." The Southampton Town fire marshal's office is investigating the cause.

An engine from East Hampton initially stood by at the Bridgehampton Firehouse to answer any additional calls should they have come in, but those firefighters were eventually needed at the blaze, so the Southampton Fire Department sent an additional engine to Bridgehampton's headquarters.

Additional help was also needed from ambulance agencies because of the number of firefighters on scene, all of whom had to be assessed. The Sag Harbor Volunteer Ambulance Corps helped at the scene, and the Southampton Village Volunteer Ambulance stood by at headquarters. The Southampton Village ambulance also sent its Polaris, an all-terrain vehicle, to help shuttle people and items up the long driveway.

Chief Horsburgh said he didn't get back to the firehouse until 6:30 a.m., though he released some fire departments between 4:30 and 5:30 a.m.

Updated, Sept. 3: The man who suffered a heart attack while aboard a boat off Montauk Inlet on Thursday died at Southampton Hospital.

The family of James D. Griffin of Montauk said he went into cardiac arrest aboard his boat after a morning of fishing. He was 67, not 60 as was originally reported by the Coast Guard. 

A full obituary for Mr. Griffin will appear in a future edition of The Star. 

Originally, Aug. 28: When a 60-year-old man had a heart attack while aboard a boat off of Montauk Inlet on Thursday morning, the Coast Guard assisted in getting him fast medical attention. 

The recreational vessel Next Move was less than one mile off the inlet when a crewmember contacted watchstanders at Coast Guard Sector Long Island Sound at about 9:30 a.m., according to a statement from the Coast Guard. The man was already unconscious. 

Coast Guard Station Montauk launched a 25-foot response boat to meet the Next Move, according to Chief Jason Walter. Two from the Coast Guard went aboard to assess the man, who was unconscious and unresponsive. They started cardiopulmonary resuscitation and attached an automated external defibrillator, which delivered a shock.

The captain continued to the town pump out dock on Star Island Drive, where a paid paramedic with the Montauk Fire Department and East Hampton Town police were waiting. A Montauk ambulance transported the man to the hospital. His condition was not immediately known.

The Coast Guard did not release the patient's name.

East Hampton Town police arrested a 21-year-old East Hampton man Friday evening on charges stemming from an alleged sexual encounter with a 16-year-old girl. Leander Kobolakis was arraigned Saturday morning on two felony charges, rape in the third degree and criminal sexual misconduct, along with a misdemeanor charge of endangering the welfare of a child. Rape in the third degree is charged when an adult 21 years old or older is accused of sex with someone who is 16 years old or younger.

He told East Hampton Town Justice Steven Tekulsky at his arraignment that he works at Bay Kitchen, a restaurant on Three Mile Harbor in East Hampton, where he said he met the girl, who, accompanied by her father, reported the incident to police. Her father, who has not been named to protect his daughter's privacy, and the alleged victim were at court Saturday morning before the defendant was brought in, and Justice Tekulsky issued her an order of protection.

Mr. Kobolakis was represented by Gordon Ryan, an attorney based in Montauk. He argued that Mr. Kobolakis should be released on low bail, pointing out that the man's mother was in the courtroom, and had $1,000 with her. "That is not going to do it," Justice Tekulsky said, setting bail at $10,000. Mr. Kobolakis's mother then left the courtroom, while Mr. Kobolakis waited for three other arraignments to be concluded before being taken back to police headquarters.

During these proceedings, which lasted nearly an hour and a half, Mr. Kobolakis, a tall, lanky man, kept getting up from his seat, until Justice Tekulsky asked, "Do you want to stand, or do you want to sit? It is fine, either way." With Mr. Ryan in a side room speaking with another defendant, Mr. Kobolakis asked an officer if there were any way to get the judge to lower the bail. He then began talking directly to Justice Tekulsky, who cautioned him not to speak. Mr. Kobolakis nevertheless asked again for lower bail. "That application has already been made. Nothing you say will change my mind. I suggest you not speak," Justice Tekulsky said.

At that point an officer explained to Mr. Kobolakis the options for bail or the alternative $100,000 bond amount set by Justice Tekulsky, explaining that the bond option could only be applied if he was taken to county jail, which was to happen later that day. He later posted bail.

Four East Hampton Village police cars and several officers on foot converged on Herrick Park on Newtown Lane Sunday morning in response to an apparent altercation between Alec Baldwin and a photographer who had been trailing the actor and his wife and 1-year-old daughter. It had drawn the attention of a nearby police officer, who called for backup.

Mr. Baldwin, his wife, Hilaria Baldwin, and daughter, Carmen, were on Newtown Lane when Matt Agudo, a photographer who had been shooting photos with a long-distance lens, approached the family. Mr. Agudo claimed that when he got close Mr. Baldwin grabbed him on both biceps, thrusting him backward.

With the two men separated, and a number of people watching from across the street, Mr. Agudo told the officer he would not press charges if Mr. Baldwin would apologize. Mr. Agudo said Mr. Baldwin did. No police report was available on Sunday to corroborate what was said to have occurred.

Mr. Baldwin is a resident of Amagansett and Manhattan and a participant here in civic and cultural events as well as a major donor to local causes. In a letter to the editor of The East Hampton Star published on Oct. 8, 2013, he wrote that paparazzi had been "lying in wait, like kidnappers and home invaders do, then abruptly popping up to find the desired moment to take advantage. . . ." The letter mentioned two photographers who had stalked him in Amagansett and East Hampton, but he named only one, who was not Mr. Agudo.

Mr. Baldwin has had numerous encounters with photographers, reporters, and even the police over the years, in which he has been accused of pushing, shoving, or cursing. He was arrested in New York City in May on a charge of disorderly conduct after two officers stopped him for riding his bicycle the wrong way on Fifth Avenue near his Greenwich Village apartment. The case was adjourned in July, with the charge scheduled to be dismissed if Mr. Baldwin was not arrested again within a specific time frame.

The man found dead in the the water off Uihlein's Marina in Montauk Monday morning has been identified as Carl Darenberg Jr., the owner of the Montauk Marine Basin and a well-known figure in the hamlet. 

According to police, Mr. Darenberg, 64, was found in Montauk Harbor off West Lake Drive, not far from the marina that has been in his family for nearly 60 years, at about 9:40 a.m. 

East Hampton Town Police Chief Michael Sarlo confirmed Mr. Darenberg's identity this afternoon, though no further information was immediately available.

Word of Mr. Darenberg's death quickly spread throughout town. Mr. Darenberg's page on Facebook, a social media site on which he was very active, was fast filling up with condolences and memories. "If ever there was a man who epitomized 'joie de vivre' it was my friend Carl," wrote Paul Monte, the general manager of Gurney's Inn Resort and Spa in Montauk. "He lived every day with a gusto and spirit that was larger than life. It was a joy, an honor, and a pleasure to know him, work with him, and call him my friend."

Mr. Darenberg ran the full-service marina that his father bought in 1955, with his daughter, Courtney, his son, Chase, and a nephew, Chris, according to the marine basin’s website. Two shark-fishing tournaments, including Montauk's first no-kill shark tournament, are held from his marina. He was also a yacht sales representative.

Mr. Darenberg’s father, the late Carl Darenberg Sr., a charter boat captain from Freeport who had moved to Montauk in the 1930s, bought the Montauk Marine Basin in 1955, and his mother, Vivian, was born at Third House in Montauk to Frank and Hilda Tuma, descendants of the Bakers, a founding family of Montauk.

Mr. Darenberg began working at the Marine Basin  at the age of 7, and started working as a mate on charter boats when he was 12. He earned a captain’s license at 18, and became the general manager of the marina in 1993.

In May 2008 interview in The Star, he recalled being a student at the University of Florida in January 1973 when he received word that the marina had been destroyed by a fire. He returned home to help his family rebuild it, but it caught fire again that May.

"Local fishing guys helped us get up and running again. We were pumping gas by Memorial Day,” he told The Star, adding that he never did make it back to school. “I was needed here,” he said.

Mr. Darenberg was named the Montauk Chamber of Commerce’s Person of the Year in 2012.  He had been a member of the chamber’s board of directors for 24 years. He was also affiliated with many other Montauk organizations, such as the Montauk Citizens Advisory Committee and the Montauk Boatman’s and Captain’s Association. He helped organize many events, including the inaugural Montauk Seafood Festival last year, Montauk's harbor festival, and the chamber’s annual Old-Timers dinner.

With Reporting by T.E. McMorrow and Russell Drumm

There is a new addition to the list of famous faces that frequent East Hampton, and this one is fuzzier than most. Meet Milos (mee-losh) Camaro, an 8-year-old Brussels Griffon with quite the résumé of print and television work, as an actor and model for brands such as Iams, Cablevision, Ralph Lauren, Nikon, Michael Kors, and Google.

Misha Jenkins, Milos’s owner, is a location scout under the name Where’bouts. When Milos is not on the set for one of his own jobs, he’ll tag along to one of his owner’s, who said that people working there “know him and want his energy on set to take away their stress.” Milos, who was trained as a therapy dog at Good Dog Foundation, knows how to “sit with sick people and stressed-out people,” Mr. Jenkens said

The dog is named after the director Milos Foreman. As for Camaro, Mr. Jenkins said it just stuck. He’s also called “The Lump, Pumpkin, Mustard, Popcorn Paws — his paws smell like popcorn.”

Hailing from Chicago’s South Side, Milos was one of the puppies in the litter of a breeder who heads the Brussels Griffon Club of America.

Those seeking a pawtograph can find Milos in Springs. Mr. Jenkins reported that he and Rachel Fleet, a friend of his, have just bought a house there and hope to move in next month.

Milos “loves the beach, but doesn’t love the ocean, because every wave is pretty much taller than him,” said Mr. Jenkins, who used to work at a yoga studio. “He started taking yoga with me and would sleep on the blanket while we practiced yoga.”

The dog has been recognized not only in New York City, for his Cablevision commercial, but also in Los Angeles, as he was accompanying Mr. Jenkins to a yoga class. “Someone said, ‘I’ve done yoga with this dog before!’ ”

At their home in Brooklyn, Mr. Jenkins reported, “he’s the local celebrity of Prospect Park. . . . If you Google ‘dogs that look like Chewbacca,’ he’s number three,” Mr. Jenkins said.

The pair have driven cross-country together twice. Milos also rides the subway, and now has a papoose to ride with Mr. Jenkins on his motorcycle.

Hope and pessimism mingled in roughly equal measure at the Jewish Center of the Hamptons on Monday morning as pro-Israel panelists from the worlds of media and academia discussed the seven-week war in Gaza, the rise of violent Islamic radicalism, and the surge of anti-Semitism around the world.

Speaking to a standing-room-only crowd, Mortimer Zuckerman, an East Hampton resident who is the publisher of the New York Daily News and editor in chief of U.S. News and World, expressed the panelists’ united defense of the Israeli military’s conduct in the war. Hamas, Mr. Zuckerman said, the militant group that governs Gaza and does not recognize Israel’s right to exist, launched missiles at Israel from densely populated areas, effectively using civilians as human shields. He also sought to provide context to reports that more than 2,000 Palestinian civilians had been killed in the war by noting that 378,000 German civilians and 580,000 Japanese civilians were killed in World War II.

“This is not a moral strike against Israel,” he said. Other panelists said the criticism of Palestinian casualties ignores what they said were the extraordinary measures taken to warn of impending action through leaflets, text messages, and telephone calls.

  Mr. Zuckerman had recently toured one of the tunnels Hamas had built. “It was stunning to see what had been done,” he said, describing miles-long passageways large enough for trucks with electricity and telecommunication facilities. Describing some as having reached either side of an Israeli kibbutz, he said, “That’s when you realized how precarious Israel’s basic, fundamental security is.”

Some of the panelists called the situation intractable and said it had often been exacerbated by the United States, where political support for Israel seems to be waning. Others voiced optimism, calling the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria a phenomenon that will inevitably galvanize Western civilization and Arab countries alike to act against it. 

According to Mr. Zuckerman, with Hamas severely weakened by the war and the Palestinian majority in favor of a political settlement with Israel, a peace initiative is now possible, involving Arab countries concerned about a nuclear Iran, fundamentalist Islam, and overall instability in the Middle East. The opponents of Israel, he said, “are not Palestinians but radical Islam, which is now recognized by many of the other Arab countries, such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. On the theory that ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend,’ Israel is now recognized by other Arab countries as a potential ally,” he said.

Judith Miller, whose reporting on Iraq’s alleged weapons of mass destruction in The New York Times was ultimately discredited, also struck an optimistic note. Despite 12 million displaced people in the Middle East and religious and ethnic groups being systematically driven from their homes, “I am not as worried because I think ISIS has done the world a great service.” She said it had “awakened the American public and Western civilization to the danger and horror of these people.” Even President Obama, whom Ms. Miller called “reflexively passive,” has called the organization barbaric, she said.

In Ms. Miller’s opinion, Arabs will ultimately reject the more radical groups. “They will turn their backs on them just as they turned their backs on Al Qaeda in Iraq,” she said. While a strong critic of President Obama’s policies, she said she was “not a critic of his taking his time to figure out what’s the best way to isolate and destroy these people, because, make no mistake about it, Barack Obama is no pacifist. He kills comfortably from 20,000 feet, from drones. What he doesn’t want to do is send in more Americans to get killed, and get in the middle of a huge, generational, fundamental struggle for the future of Islam.”

Ms. Miller said that conversations with Saudi Arabians and Egypt’s president, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, reveal “a huge strategic opportunity for the United States.” That, she said, is to “push people to do what is in their strategic interest right now, which is to deny the Islamists at least one argument, which is ‘the Israelis are part of a Western camp who will never want peace with Arabs and the only thing we can do is fight them.’ If we are perceived as having our initiative with our new Arab allies — Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the U.A.E., Israel, Egypt — you can begin to at least appear to make some progress.”

Among the other panelists, John Podhoretz, the editor of Commentary and a New York Post columnist, was pessimistic that a lasting agreement between Israel and the Palestiinians could be reached. Alarmed by the rise of anti-Semitism aligned with the war, he said, “This is really striking. The notion that Hamas launches a war, Israel responds to the war, and the complete blending, in this case, of a national action by a sovereign state in response to a specific set of circumstances with the existence of Jews, particularly in Europe.” He allowed, however that perhaps ISIS represents “a new kind of threat that will crystallize and focus some of these governments, but it does not appear to be having that effect on populations in those countries.” 

Richard Stone, a former chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations and a professor at the Columbia University School of Law, said that an Israeli-Palestinian settlement would not placate groups like ISIS or Boko Haram, the extremists who continue to plague Nigeria, where it kidnapped more than 250 schoolgirls in April.

Richard Cohen, a columnist for The Washington Post, called himself “a long-term worrier” and expressed dismay about the U.S.-Israel relationship. “I can see Israel . . . becoming a pariah state in much of the world. It’s certainly becoming that in Europe, it’s certainly becoming that in South America, it’s becoming that on American campuses, which is the future,” he said. “In the long term, this lack of support among young people in America will start to erode the political support for Israel in the United States.”

Kenneth Bialkin, a Water Mill resident who moderated the panel and is chairman of the American-Israel Friend?ship League, had introduced the program.

“We — hopers for a better future — had better get our act together and speak up,” he said.

Chris Scott, a 27-year-old whose family has a house in Springs, was flown on Tuesday to an Atlanta hospital specializing in spinal cord injuries, nearly a month after a skydiving accident in Calverton. Gary Messina, a 25-year-old New York City correction officer, died when their tandem jump went horribly wrong, and Mr. Scott, a top Skydive Long Island instructor, was left a quadriplegic.

While the Federal Aviation Administration is still investigating the cause of the accident, Mr. Scott’s family is focused on his rehabilitation, and his friends are trying to raise money to help with his long-term care.

Steve Scott said his son is paralyzed from the neck down, unable to breathe or eat on his own, and only able to mouth words. Until Tuesday, he was in the intensive care unit at Stony Brook University Medical Center, where he was flown immediately after the accident.

“If there’s any luck in the tragedy, there’s no cranial damage whatsoever,” Mr. Scott said.

The young man’s family has been working with the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation, which led them to the Shepherd Center in Atlanta, regarded as one of the pre-eminent spinal cord injury rehab hospitals in the world, where he will receive the latest and most progressive treatment. His life support equipment was moved there with him on a Medevac flight.

The family hopes he will be able to return to Sound Beach, where he now lives, though when is uncertain. “They’re doing unbelievable things in spinal cord injury cases,” his father said. “Chris just turned 27 — he’s so young. In 5 or 10 years, who knows what is going on. Hopefully, he’ll be in better shape than he is today.”

His medical expenses are largely covered under workers’ compensation since he was working at the time, Mr. Scott said. “What it doesn’t cover, and what our concern is, it doesn’t cover housing, food, clothing, shelter for the rest of his life.”

To help, his skydiving buddies have set up a fund-raising site: helpchrisscott.com. Donations may also be made by check, made out to Marie Scott, his mother, at UBS Financial Services Inc., 1 State Street, Floor 16, Hartford, Conn. 06103-3102.

“We are all trying our best, but we’re all absolutely devastated,” Mr. Scott said.  

His son grew up in New York City, attending P.S. 6 and York Prep, and was introduced to skydiving while a student at the University of Arizona. “He fell in love with the sport,” his father said. He became an instructor at a drop zone in Tucson before moving back east, and had worked for the last four or five years at Skydive Long Island, which operates a training school from a hangar near Calverton Executive Airpark.

“I think he had something close to 6,000 jumps at the time of the accident,” Mr. Scott said, adding that his son was rated one of the leading skydivers in the United States. “Skydiving is extremely physical, particularly for instructors. Some days, he’d do 20 tandem jumps in a single day.”

He described Chris as an outdoorsman and a free spirit who loved fishing and surfing at beaches in Montauk and Amagansett, where he lived for a time during college while working as a landscaper. “He was a tremendous athlete. He loved sports. He was an outdoors person — he never wanted to work in an office.”

He was aware of the risks associated with skydiving, his father said. In fact, father and son had discussed its perils over dinner about two weeks before the accident. “He always defended it,” said Mr. Scott.

A plan for an aquatic center and multipurpose space at the Montauk Playhouse Community Center, which has been in the works for almost eight years, has been completely revised and the cost of its construction substantially reduced, from $10 million to $7 million.

A small group gathered at the playhouse on Saturday morning to hear about the new plan from Tom Griffin, a playhouse foundation board member. The aquatic center, he said, is to be moved from the lower level to the upper, under a large bank of windows that will let in more light. “Let’s get it up there where the sunshine is,” said Mr. Griffin.

The multipurpose center will be in the cavernous ground level, the original site of the pool. The larger space will allow large-scale events to be held there, including rock concerts, theater productions, children’s concerts, arts and crafts fairs, a farmers market, car and boat shows, and the like.

To complete the now-$7 million project, the foundation will need to raise another $5 million. It already has $2 million on hand.

At 3,000 square feet and 25 yards in length, the pool will be similar to the pool at Gurney’s Inn, said Mr. Griffins. It will be five feet deep at the deepest point, with a sloping side to make entry easier for youngsters, the handicapped, and the elderly. There will be a hot tub as well, for therapeutic use.

The pool, Mr. Griffin said, will be available for personal training, private and group swim lessons, baby swim classes, scuba training, water aerobics, and many other uses. “We want to provide services for everyone,” he said.

The revised plan is the result of a survey sent to residents last fall. Most people said they would like a year-round pool to use as soon as possible.

After sitting and decaying for many years, the playhouse was renovated and opened in 2006. It currently has a widely used gymnasium, adult and child care services, and a senior citizens nutrition center. Body Tech and Manuel Sports Physical Therapy are also on the site. Fund-raisers are held year round.

There will be daily passes and membership passes for pool use, which will also raise money to maintain it. If all goes well and the money is raised, construction could be completed in 2016, said Mr. Griffin, which would be the 10-year anniversary of the playhouse’s opening.

“This isn’t that complicated. It’s time to get serious and professional about it,” he said.

Another informational meeting will be held at the playhouse Thursday at 7.

East Hampton Town announced Tuesday that it has won a $9.9 million federal grant to buy low-lying properties in the Lazy Point area of Amagansett, under a program designed to eliminate or prevent development in areas prone to severe flooding.

Under the Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service emergency watershed protection program, the money will be used to purchase some 16 properties on Mulford Lane and Bayview Avenue, both vacant and developed. Structures on the sites will be demolished so that the natural floodplain can be restored or re-established.

“We are facing the stark reality that development should not exist along some areas of our coastline where long-term erosion clearly exists and flooding potential in low-lying areas can threaten lives and damage property,” East Hampton Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell said in a release announcing the grant.

The town was among a number of Long Island communities competing for a portion of the federal grant money.

Mr. Cantwell praised the work of Kim Shaw, the town’s natural resources director, who worked with the Nature Conservancy to reach out to property owners and facilitate the grant. With it, he said in a release, the town can “preserve building parcels that will otherwise be developed and eliminate existing development clearly vulnerable to erosion and future storms.”

The town has recently begun to focus its land acquisition and preservation efforts on coastal areas that are not only vulnerable to flooding but where development can contribute to the pollution of watersheds.

In the wake of Hurricane Sandy, a state law was enacted authorizing the five East End towns to use community preservation fund money, normally earmarked for open space, farmland, historic sites, and parks and recreation, to buy property at risk of coastal erosion or flooding as well.

Following an outreach effort to property owners around Lake Montauk, numerous parcels in the lake watershed are being purchased. A similar outreach to Lazy Point landowners in the spring indicated interest from the potential sellers there as well. Future efforts will target the areas around Three Mile Harbor and Accabonac Harbor.

The area targeted under the federal grant program encompasses all the land east of Napeague Meadow Road in Lazy Point. The objective, according to a town memo, is to “protect and restore the natural floodplain and its functions; protect ground and surface water quality; protect open space, scenic vistas, wildlife habitat, dune lands and vegetation; provide public access to the shoreline, and add to the already protected lands in the area owned by New York State (Napeague State Park), the town, and the town trustees.”

“I think this is a pre-emptive way to deal with problems that we know we’re going to have to deal with in the future,” Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell said last spring.

“It’s obvious, what’s happening there,” he said of the eroding shores at Lazy Point, citing the example of a house at the end of Mulford Lane that is actually on stilts above the water. “The acquisition of land, including some improved properties, for floodplain protection and water quality protection are a key component to solving these issues.”

Initial discussions included a potential for the town to contribute $150,000 towards the floodplain purchases, and a $100,000 contribution from the Nature Conservancy through its coastal resilience buyout program.

    Properties would be purchased from landowners at values from before recent devastating coastal storms. East Hampton Town would own the underlying land, while the federal agency would own easements or development rights on the properties.

    In the press release issued Tuesday, Steve Graboski, one of the owners of a Bayview Avenue property, said, “This will be a good thing because people will be able to reclaim the value from their properties. I’ve lived down there for over 30 years, and the nor’easters are the storms that really affect us the worst. The erosion is like a chip-away effect, chipping away the shoreline over the years.”