Fire Warning Is Issued For County Lands-Little rain means dangerously dry conditions

Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy issued a fire warning on Monday for all parks and public lands within Suffolk County. With hardly any rain on the East End in August and only 1.3 inches in July, conditions are similar to those that preceded the catastrophic Pine Barrens brushfire 10 years ago.

It was in 1995 that 6,000 acres of the Pine Barrens burned. It took firefighters from all over Suffolk and Nassau Counties almost two weeks to put out the fire. The barrens comprises 102,000 acres covering portions of Brookhaven, Riverhead, and Southampton Towns.

Similar events have occurred on the South Fork. In 1986, a brushfire in Montauk burned 2,500 acres in Hither Woods.

"We are on a heightened state of alert," said George Gorman, director of operations for New York State Parks on Long Island, a division of the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation. "My understanding is that Montauk is one of the driest areas on Long Island right now," he said.

As of Tuesday night, his office had yet to close any of the Montauk parks, although it will do so if the "dryness alert" continues, Mr. Gorman said. The Parks Department has increased patrols, put up fire prevention signs, and posted warnings notifying campers that campfires are prohibited in Hither Hills.

Charles Grimes, chief of the Montauk Fire Department, said that most brushfires in Montauk are caused by burning cigarettes, and Mr. Levy has cautioned people not to throw cigarettes on the ground or out of car windows.

Two Montauk brushfires this spring were caused by smoke bombs, Chief Grimes said. He added that smoke bombs once topped the list of fire hazards, along with lighted cigarettes, but the department has been discouraging Montauk businesses from selling them.

The chief advised that bonfires be built far from dunes and beach grass, and said that they should be doused with water and covered with sand or dirt before the site is abandoned.

Those who build campfires, particularly in wooded areas, should take extreme care, Chief Grimes said. Only fires in approved containers - metal barrels used for grilling, for example - are allowed in Suffolk County parks, according to Mr. Levy.

Daniel Lester, chief of the Amagansett Fire Department, said that still-burning or smoldering charcoals should not be placed on the ground until they have been extinguished with water. Chief Lester reported that there have been just two small brushfires in Amagansett this summer, both of which were quickly extinguished.

"Carelessness is the real problem," Chief Grimes said. He advised exercising caution whether building fires or using matches, lighters, sparklers, or anything else that can ignite a fire.

Judy Jakobsen of the Central Pine Barrens Wildfire Task Force said that "fire danger" ratings - low, moderate, high, very high, and extreme - are based on weather forecasts and the measure of moisture in grass, twigs, sticks, and other "fuels" on the ground.

The fire danger rating in the Pine Barrens is now "high," she said.