Beach Play Becomes Painful

On June 13 as dusk dimmed to night, Kate Overton’s 4-year-old daughter frolicked barefoot along the Three Mile Harbor inlet at Maidstone Park. Mrs. Overton and a group of friends were packing up to leave when they heard a child’s scream.

Mrs. Overton turned and saw her daughter, Jana, collapsed in the sand. A mother nearby swiftly grabbed the girl as Mrs. Overton and others hurried over. In the dark, the group searched for clues on Jana’s body. Someone turned on car headlights.

They spotted the burn. It covered the bottom of her left foot and almost reached a third degree. Jana had run through the remnants of a beach fire that someone covered with sand before extinguishing its hot embers. A former volunteer emergency medical technician in the group began to quickly administer gel pads.

Mrs. Overton swept up her crying, patched-up daughter to make a pit stop at Waldbaum’s, spending an easy $150 on supplies such as Advil and bandages. The next morning, the doctor at East Hampton Urgent Care’s trauma center wrapped Jana's blistering foot in a cast with nonstick pads and gauze, secured it with a sock and prescribed painkillers. 

Mrs. Overton borrowed a friend's jogging stroller to cart Jana around town. 

"It all happened so fast," said Mrs. Overton, who's outraged at the person responsible and later took to Facebook to express her anger and warn other parents of the danger that can be lurking under the sand. 

A nighttime tradition in East Hampton, fires are permitted on both town and village beaches, but the regulations differ. Both town and village codes require that a water bucket accompany the fire and that sand not be used as an extinguisher. 

On the village beaches, fires must be confined inside a metal container, a rule the village board passed in 2010 in a response to concerns about safety and litter. 

"We don't want people stepping on it," said Barbara Borsack, a village board member. 

Ms. Borsack said she came across Mrs. Overton's post on Facebook, but otherwise wasn't aware of any recent bonfire burns. 

"It's always a danger," she acknowledged.

On town beaches, such as the bay beach at Maidstone Park in Springs where Jana burned her feet, a metal container is not required. 

Bonfire burns are always a risk, especially when people don't follow the rules about extinguishing their fires when they leave the beach. East Hampton Town Councilman Fred Overton, whose nephew is married to Mrs. Overton, recalled how years ago as a child, his cousin stepped on "sand in the wrong place" during a mid-day visit to Louse Point in Springs and suffered severe burns. 

"It's been a problem for a long time," he said. 

But with bonfire season in full swing and the Fourth of July coming up, the issue seems to be on people's minds. Even before Mrs. Overton began speaking out about her daughter's experience at Maidstone Park, East Hampton Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell had raised the issue at a town board meeting, questioning whether new regulations should be considered.

Later upon hearing of Jana's burns, he called the incident "disturbing" and said current protocols are not working. 

"The worst thing anyone can do is cover a fire and leave it burning beneath the surface for someone to step on," he said. 

The coals left behind and the mess they make in the sand are also sources of frustration for many.

“The beach is disgusting,” said Mrs. Overton.

Ms. Borsack talked about the dozens of fires along Wiborg’s Beach these days, and debris getting strewn around the sand with bad weather.

“By the end of the summer, the beach is looking gray instead of beige,” she said.

Mr. Cantwell wants better enforcement, but acknowledged that the influx of visitors during the summer months combined with almost 70 miles of beachfront could make stricter oversight difficult.

“It’s virtually impossible to be everywhere at the same time,” he said. Mr. Overton echoed this sentiment.

“I don’t know how you police it. We try to be specific. Some people don’t pay attention,” he said. “More regulations probably won’t help.”

The night after getting burned, Jana slept a mere two hours. She felt hot and uncomfortable, but couldn’t leave the bed in case she began to sweat. She itched, too, her mother said.

Mrs. Overton had signed her up for a camp at the Neighborhood House starting in the coming weeks. Now, she isn’t sure Jana will be able to attend. As for returning to Maidstone Park, Mrs. Overton said her daughter recoiled at the idea.