Official: Five departments fight fire at Kings Park garbage carting facility
Firefighters work to extinguish a blaze that broke out Saturday night at a Kings Park garbage carting facility. Credit: Joseph C. Sperber
A Saturday night fire at a Kings Park garbage carting facility took 120 firefighters from five departments nearly five hours to extinguish, officials said.
The blaze was reported about 8:30 p.m. at a Winters Brothers Waste Systems facility on Lawrence Road and was not put out until about 1:45 a.m., said Smithtown Fire Department public information officer Rick Torre.
First responders forced their way inside the building where they found a large pile of construction debris on fire with flames extending to the roof, Torre said.
It remained unclear Sunday what caused the fire.
Firefighters used two hydrants to battle the blaze, one of which was 2,300 feet away, and Smithtown firefighters removed excavating machinery from the building to prevent fire damage.
“A couple of our members who are trained to move heavy machinery," Torre said. "They moved several of the machines so they wouldn’t catch fire."
One Smithtown firefighter was taken to St. Catherine of Siena Medical Center in Smithtown for treatment of minor injuries, Torre said. Firefighters remained on the scene until after 3 a.m.
The Commack, Hauppauge, Kings Park and St. James fire departments assisted Smithtown firefighters, officials said.
The Nesconset Fire Department responded to 13 calls while serving standby for Smithtown, Torre said.
Vera Chinese joined Newsday in 2017 after working as an editor for the East End lifestyle publication northforker and a general assignment reporter for the New York Daily News.
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