Bay Shore fire damages vehicles at scrapyard, county bus next door, officials say

A fire at a scrapyard in Bay Shore on Sunday afternoon damaged about 100 vehicles and spread to an adjacent bus depot where at least one Suffolk County Transit bus was charred, fire department officials said.

A 911 call came in at 12:47 p.m. reporting a fire at NJC Scrap Metal Recycling on Moffitt Boulevard, according to Bay Shore Fire Department Chief John Ippolito Jr.

"When we arrived on scene, we had numerous vehicles on fire in the scrapyard, which also extended to the neighboring lot," Ippolito said.

There were no injuries, he said, but the vehicles — many of them piled up at the scrapyard — were damaged. The fire also affected the bus depot next door owned by Suffolk Transportation Service and Suffolk Bus Corp., the county's private partner in Suffolk County Transit. Suffolk Transportation Service, which has the same owner, has school buses that serve about two dozen school districts across Suffolk County, according to the company's website.

Thirteen fire departments and ambulance companies battled the fire amid high winds brought by the weekend's nor'easter, Ippolito said.

"It was definitely wind-driven in the beginning," he said of the fire, "and then the wind died down, which definitely helped us out."

The fire was mostly under control about 3:45 p.m., according to Ippolito.

"We're still basically dismantling vehicles in a big pile to get to the bottom where the fire was deep-seated," he said.

The cause of the fire remained under investigation, Ippolito said.

Neither NJC Scrap Metal nor Suffolk Transportation Service immediately responded to requests from Newsday for comment by phone and email.