Skip to main content

Springs House a Total Loss After Blaze

Thu, 11/16/2023 - 15:44
Smoke was visible in the distance down a long, flag-lot style driveway on Wednesday.
Carissa Katz

Three fire departments battled a blaze on the afternoon of Nov. 15 that destroyed a house on Springs-Fireplace Road near Harrison Avenue in Springs. The house had been unoccupied but for a number of pets, which are thought to have died in the fire.

According to Springs Fire Department Chief Tim Weber, the call came in at 2:48 p.m. as a "chief's investigation" — indicating a level of uncertainty over the type of incident — at a different address, but while he was on his way there, dispatchers switched the call to a working structure fire.

The house, a one-story structure with a basement at the end of a flag-lot driveway, "was fully involved" by that time, Chief Weber said last Thursday afternoon.

Thomas Baker, an assistant East Hampton Town fire marshal who was a Springs volunteer firefighter himself for 36 years, described multiple challenges associated with the property.

"The biggest complication was the length of the driveway and the fact that it was narrow," Mr. Baker, who was at the scene in his capacity as a town official, said last Thursday. "The Fire Department could stack in three fire trucks and not much more in order to do their job. The confining, close quarters made it difficult."

A Springs engine crew was assisted by an engine and a tanker from the East Hampton Fire Department. The Amagansett Fire Department sent a rapid-intervention team, while the Sag Harbor department stood by at Springs headquarters.

Excavating equipment was brought in to help firefighters find and extinguish pockets of flames, Chief Weber said.

"There was a lot of content in the house, so the excavator helped pull everything out so we could get the fire out."

The scene was deemed cleared shortly before 6 p.m., but about seven hours later, according to a town police report, dispatchers received a call that "the remaining portion of the home had rekindled." Springs firefighters were dispatched again, and they extinguished the flames.

The town fire marshal's office is still investigating the cause.


This story has been updated since it was first published.

Activists Disrupt Holiday Weekend

Sag Harbor Village police were called to the American Hotel at around 10 p.m. on Friday, following a report of a group of men “causing a disturbance” in the lobby.

Sep 4, 2025

Fleeing Driver Goes to Court

Most of the charges against a Latham, N.Y., man who appeared in East Hampton Town Justice Court last week stem from an incident on May 25, when he allegedly fled from a town police officer who was conducting a traffic stop on Montauk Highway in Amagansett.

Sep 4, 2025

Almost Struck Traffic Control Officer

Sag Harbor Village police arrested a Brooklyn man on Main Street after receiving a report that his car had “almost struck” a young T.C.O., who told police she had seen the driver head north in the southbound lane and then park against the flow of traffic.

Sep 4, 2025

Left-Hand Turns Go Wrong

A bicyclist was taken to the Stony Brook East Hampton Emergency Department on Friday morning after being struck by a Subaru S.U.V. on Springs-Fireplace Road.

Sep 4, 2025

 

Your support for The East Hampton Star helps us deliver the news, arts, and community information you need. Whether you are an online subscriber, get the paper in the mail, delivered to your door in Manhattan, or are just passing through, every reader counts. We value you for being part of The Star family.

Your subscription to The Star does more than get you great arts, news, sports, and outdoors stories. It makes everything we do possible.