Several fire departments worked for four hours to tame a fire at a large house on La Forest Lane in East Hampton Saturday evening.
East Hampton Village police were the first to arrive on scene after an emergency call at 6:09 p.m. Dispatchers then notified East Hampton Fire Chief Duane Forrester about multiple alarms coming from the house on Georgica Cove while he was responding to the reported location.
Fire was coming out of two upstairs windows, those at the scene observed. Noticing lots of cars in the driveway, police entered the house, unsure of whether anyone was there. Later, firefighters confirmed that nobody was in the house at the time of the incident.
The fire was seemingly limited to one room, a hallway with two couches. Chief Forrester was able to "knock some of the fire down" with water cans from the two on-scene chief's vehicles while he awaited the arrival of fire engines.
When the engines arrived, "those guys went in and made a push to put the rest of the fire out," Chief Forrester said. The departments in Amagansett, Springs, and Sag Harbor also sent engines to assist with the effort. East Hampton's ambulance squad also responded to ensure that nobody suffered from heat exhaustion or other health issues while working on the blaze.
The Sag Harbor Fire Department brought its Rapid Intervention Team, and was later joined by a similar crew from Amagansett.
"We had a hard time getting to the fire," Chief Forrester said. "The way houses are constructed right now, they use spray foam as insulation and that gums up our chainsaws," he added. The crews attempted to get to the fire through the attic, but their efforts were unsuccessful.
"Some types of building construction hamper us" while attempting to enter a house, the chief said. "We run into things that slow us down sometimes." While the firefighters were working, the homeowners arrived at the house.
Eventually, the fire department called in a ladder truck to assist. The crew on that truck backed into the driveway and used a powerful hose known as a master stream to blow shingles off the roof to get to the fire. The firefighters were able to "put it out that way," the chief said.
One first responder sustained a minor injury during the effort. As one firefighter cleared a window of glass, the shards hit another firefighter in the face. The "small cut" was treated on scene.
It had been a while since the East Hampton Fire Department responded to a large active fire, "which is a good thing," Chief Forrester said. In recent months, most of the department's time has been spent responding to gas leaks and carbon monoxide alarms.
The East Hampton Village fire marshal is leading an investigation into the possible cause of the La Forest Lane fire.