North Amityville trailer park has sixth fire of past year

A fire erupted inside an abandoned mobile home in North Amityville early Saturday, the sixth blaze at the trailer park in the past year, authorities said.

Firefighters responding to the 4:24 a.m. blaze at Frontier Mobile Home Park saw “sizable” flames shooting out of the mobile home, North Amityville Fire Chief John Harley said.

“We were able to knock the fire down in 20 minutes ... and prevented it from getting onto two adjoining trailers,” he said.

Firefighters and trucks from other volunteer companies, including Wyandanch, Farmingdale and North Lindenhurst, also responded. No injuries were reported.

Harley said there have been “suspicious” fires at the mobile home park since plans were announced that the property was the site of an apartment complex.

In September, construction began on the development — the largest apartment complex in Babylon Town, with 500 apartments and 42,000 square feet of retail space. It’s located on Route 110 just south of the Southern State Parkway.

Residents were first notified of the redevelopment in 2011. Homeowners fought evictions even as the developer, R Squared Real Estate Partners of Plainview, began demolitions there in August 2014.

Some residents are still there, Harley said.

Town and Suffolk County officials said the 50-year-old park, owned by Amityville attorney H. Lee Blumberg, had become dangerous. The owner told county officials he couldn’t afford to fix health and safety violations.

Harley said fire marshals are investigating the cause of the latest fire. In previous blazes, investigators found kerosene heaters in abandoned trailers or fires that started from a bundle of clothing.

“Sometimes there are people in these trailers that aren’t supposed to be there,” Harley said. “And a bundle of clothes just don’t start burning by themselves without the help of a human.”

Frontier spokesman David Chauvin said in a statement: “The fire did not take place near any of the occupied trailer homes. We are very grateful for the Amityville Fire Department’s quick response and professionalism.”