Fire departments and emergency medical service agencies across the South Fork were kept busy over the weekend in less than ideal weather conditions. Among the calls was one that destroyed a home workspace in Amagansett and another that totaled a rare vehicle in East Hampton Village. There was also a mattress fire in Springs.
In between were dozens more calls. From midnight Friday to midnight Sunday, the seven agencies dispatched by East Hampton Village responded to 72 calls for emergency medical services and 58 fire calls, including automatic fire alarms, according to J.P. Foster, a chief dispatcher. The Bridgehampton Fire Department, which serves part of Wainscott in addition to Bridgehampton, Sagaponack, and part of Water Mill, responded to 26 fire-related emergencies during the same time period — 18 of them on Saturday alone — and seven E.M.S. calls.
“The hot weather, traffic, and crowds made it an extremely challenging weekend,” said East Hampton Fire Department Chief Gerard Turza Jr. Many automatic fire alarms were set off for uneventful reasons, from cooking to faulty detectors and dead batteries. A number of the calls, mostly faulty ones as well, were for carbon monoxide.
It was in the low 80s at about 7:45 a.m. Saturday when Amagansett firefighters got a report of smoke coming from an attached garage at a house on Grove Street. Chief Ted Page said his assistant chiefs were preparing breakfast for those setting up for Soldier Ride the Hamptons, which starts and finishes in Amagansett. They were the first to arrive at the house, where they found a fire in a small work space, later identified as an upholstery shop.
There was a hydrant right in front of the house, but it was not working — the Suffolk County Water Authority had notified the department recently, Chief Page said. The chiefs immediately called for additional tankers, which carry water, from East Hampton and Springs. Firefighters put a quick stop to the blaze, and the Springs tanker was called off, the chief said. The workspace was destroyed, but the flames did not spread to the rest of the house, owned by Calandra Sheen and Francisco Poblete.
Firefighters remained on scene until 9:15 a.m. and then went back to helping with Soldier Ride. Conditions were rough, but no one was injured, Chief Page said. “The humidity was through the roof.”
Tom Baker, an East Hampton Town fire marshal, said the fire was caused by discarded sawdust in a plastic trash can. Sawdust builds heat, and can spark a fire, helped in this case by the heat of the day, he said. He ruled the blaze accidental.
East Hampton firefighters were already out for an uncontrolled open burn on Saturday when word came in at about 4:50 p.m. of a vehicle fire at a residence on Briar Patch Road, East Hampton, owned by Noam Gottesman, an Israeli-American billionaire hedge fund magnate. Firefighters found a fully involved vehicle fire in the driveway, which they extinguished.
While the call itself was relatively routine, the vehicle was anything but. The 1962 Lancia Superjolly Popemobile, an open-top small bus with two front seats and a large rear circular bench, was a total loss. The blue-and-white, alloy-bodied, light commercial Italian automobile, which had been fully restored, was left a charred frame.
Its former owner was Stuart Parr, a renowned designer, artist manager, film producer, and car and motorcycle collector. His company, the Stuart Parr Collection, which is based in New York City and Wainscott, said on its website that the vehicle had been used by V.I.P.s during visits to the factory in Chivasso, Italy. In 1978, it was modified with new seats in anticipation of the visit of Pope John Paul I.
Ken Collum, the East Hampton Village fire marshal, said yesterday that the fire in the Lancia was caused by an engine malfunction.
On Sunday afternoon in Springs, a cord used to charge an iPad sparked a fire after getting caught between a mattress and box spring, Mr. Baker, the fire marshal, said. The blaze broke out in a rented room in a house on Lincoln Street, discovered by a tenant who heard the smoke alarm go off.
Mr. Baker noted that the house was legally listed on the town’s rental registry. He would not comment on possible violations, citing an open investigation. The flames were contained to the second-floor room, but there was water damage on the first floor.
The fire marshal recommended unplugging any chargeable devices not in use, or using a multi-charging power strip that can be turned on and off. Unplugging is particularly important with after-market cords, such as the one that caused the fire on Lincoln Street, he said.