Blame Fallen Branch for Sagg Barn Blaze

Fire destroyed a Sagaponack barn believed to be at least two centuries old in the early morning hours Sunday, days before a wedding was to take place on the property, at Hedges Farm on Town Line Road.

At 1:15 a.m. when Bridgehampton Fire Department volunteers were dispatched to the fire, at 602 Town Line Road near Parsonage Lane, the barn was already engulfed in flames. A glow in the sky could be seen from Montauk Highway in Sagaponack.

Chief Gary Horsburgh said firefighters brought the blaze under control quickly, though they remained on the scene until about 4 a.m. Chiefs initially called for the East Hampton and Sag Harbor Fire Departments to assist, but then canceled the help.

Only the frame of one portion of the building remained, along with a lot of debris, including what appeared to be old iron farm equipment.

Chris Hansen, a Southampton Town fire marshal, said the fire probably began after a large tree branch fell on a primary electrical wire, taking it down. Power lines ran about 10 feet from the barn. The primary wire, which has high voltage, fell on the wooded barn, igniting the flames. The tree branch, about eight inches across, was found on the ground, entangled in the wire.

“What caused it to come down, I don’t know,” Mr. Hansen said. He has deemed the fire accidental.

The barn, which he said was about 970 square feet, was used strictly for storage. There was no one in it at the time of the fire. “There was a great deal of machines in the barn, but nothing was running,” Mr. Hansen said.

He was told that the barn dated to the mid-1800s, but Julie Greene, an archivist and curator at the Bridgehampton Museum, believes it could be much older. She said her research showed it was built around 1730 and was known as  the Jared Hedges barn. The property remains in the Hedges family today, on file with the Southampton Town Assessor’s office as Hedges Farm L.L.C.

According to The Knot, a wedding website, a wedding was to be held at the site on Oct. 11. The bride is a member of the Hedges family. The fire is not expected to interfere with the nuptials. 

This was the second major fire in Sagaponack in two weeks. On Sept. 15, a centuries-old house on Sagg Main Street was destroyed. Police are investigating that fire as arson.