Unoccupied House Damaged in Montauk Fire
A fire that started in the basement of a house on Old West Lake Drive in Montauk on Saturday morning did extensive damage to the two-story building, then reignited three hours later, requiring a second visit from the Montauk Fire Department.
In addition to two engines, a ladder truck and a pumper from the Montauk Fire Department were on the scene both times. Rapid intervention teams from Amagansett and East Hampton were called in for the first go round in morning, with the Amagansett unit being deployed to help fight the fire.
The first call about the fire came into the East Hampton Town police substation in Montauk from a resident on Lake Montauk, reporting a cloud of smoke.
Montauk Fire Department Chief Joseph Lenahan and East Hampton Town Police Officer Vincent Rantinella were the first on the scene. Officer Rantinella happened to have with him an implement newly aquired for the department, a Halligan entry tool, and volunteered to open the front door, Chief Lenaham said. The door was open in seconds. “I was impressed,” the chief said.
“Smoke conditions were intense inside,” Chief Lenahan said. The fire, which had started in the basement, had breached the first floor by the time the building was entered, he said.
The first fire truck arrived four minutes after the chief's arrival. “We set up two attack lines to the front door. The initial attack was on the first floor,” Chief Lenahan said. When the second engine arrived, the firefighters ran two lines to the basement. Vincent Franzone, an assistant chief was in charge of the interior battle, with Dutch Riege, an assistant chief, in charge of securing the perimeter of the burning house.
It took about 25 minutes to extinguish the initial blaze and much longer to get the smoke out of the house.
“We had to vent the roof in three different spots,” Chief Lenahan said.
By noon, the department was packing up. Tom Baker, an East Hampton Town fire marshal, inspected the premises. He said that the fire started in the basement, but said he would not make a final determination about the cause until Monday or Tuesday.
A neighbor, Helen Gil, said she had received a call from the property’s owner asking if she could go inside the house, and turn the heat up, slightly, which she did on Saturday morning. The fire was discovered shortly thereafter.
The second fire call came around 2:20 p.m. Plumbers who had been called to the site to pump out water from the house began to notice smoke.
The house, about 30 years old, was built at a time when the fire code for construction was less restrictive. “The way the house was constructed, they had a drop ceiling,” Chief Lenahan said. Drop ceilings and wall panels were ripped out, and the renewed blaze was extinguished promptly.
East Hampton Town tax records list the property owner as the Lionel R. Saporta Trust.