Fire Island blaze destroys Ocean Beach home, but big response limits spread

Multiple fire departments — including two that boated across the Great South Bay — responded Friday afternoon to an Ocean Beach blaze that collapsed a multimillion-dollar waterfront home and damaged two neighboring buildings.

The Ocean Beach Fire Department responded to a house fire on Bay Walk shortly after 3:20 p.m., a Suffolk County Fire Rescue and Emergency Services spokesperson told Newsday. Five mutual aid departments also responded to the scene.

Multiple Suffolk County Police officers were treated for smoke inhalation, but no civilians were injured, Suffolk police said.

The fire appeared to originate in a “utility shed” on the property of a home on Bay Walk, Village of Ocean Beach Mayor James Mallott told Newsday in a telephone interview. The fire spread and ultimately destroyed the home, which Mallott estimated is worth “close to $4 million.” No injuries were reported.

The fire caused “smoke damage and a little cosmetic damage” to a house just to the west of the home, Mallott said. A “small cottage” on the neighboring Ocean Beach Youth Group's property to the east was lost, but there was “very little damage” to the building itself, the mayor said.

“The deck got burned, but it’s nothing that’s going to stop the OBYC from operating this summer,” Mallott added.

By 6 p.m., the blaze was fully extinguished, according to Mallott. Officials with the Suffolk County Fire Marshal’s Office were on scene. Suffolk County Police Department Arson Squad detectives are investigating, but detectives believe the cause of the fire wasn't criminal, police said.

The “tremendous response” of firefighters from neighboring Fire Island departments in Fair Harbor, Ocean Bay Park and Point O’ Woods, as well as the Bay Shore, East Islip and Suffolk police firefighting boats that traveled across the Great South Bay, helped save the two buildings on either side of the torched home, Mallott said. The direction of the wind also spared the other structures.

“The wind was blowing directly out of the southeast, about 25 mph, which was very lucky for us,” the mayor said. “It blew the flames out onto the bay.”