Update: Stop and Shop Reopens After Fire
Update, 8:20 p.m.: Stop and Shop in East Hampton Village reopened Wednesday evening after a fire broke out in a mechanical room hours earlier.
East Hampton Fire Department Chief Richard Osterberg Jr. said a sprinkler system helped to contain the fire, which appeared to have been caused by debris, such as cardboard, that had been placed too close to a generator.
Employees at the grocery store at 67 Newtown Lane called 911 when they saw smoke, which had spread to the main part of the store, the chief said. They got customers out of the building, he said. Simultaneously, police dispatchers received a call from the alarm company about an automatic fire alarm that had been activated. Smoke was coming out of the back of the store, though it was hard to see because it is up against trees in Herrick Park, he added.
Gerry Turza, the second assistant chief, was the first chief to arrive, and he began "an aggressive interior attack" of the fire, Chief Osterberg said. Within 15 minutes, firefighters used 350 feet of hose to douse the flames "before damage really spread," he said. Only some of the contents of the room, which also contains refrigerator compressors and circuit breakers, were damaged. The building itself was not compromised.
Chief Osterberg notified the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets, which oversees grocery stores, because there was a risk of food contamination from the smoke that spread to the store. He said a representative was to visit the store from the Brooklyn office and would have to sign-off on the reopening.
A Stop and Shop representative could not immediately be reached, but an employee at the store Wednesday evening said it had reopened around 6:30 p.m.
Managing the fire scene was no easy task, as the store is located in the middle of the village business district, off the busy Reutershan parking lot, with many cars and people coming and going, the chief said. The East Hampton Village Police Department was a tremendous help, he said, in closing off the parking lot to additional cars and keeping the entrances open for fire trucks to get through. "P.D. was really phenomenal," he said.
The Stop and Shop staff of about 20 was also helpful; they didn't panic, they evacuated the building, and then stayed together in the parking lot so that they could all be accounted for and there was no question whether firefighters needed to search for anyone. "They have a plan in place that they do run practice on," the chief said.
Originally, 4:02 p.m.: The East Hampton Fire Department quickly brought a fire at Stop and Shop in the village under control Wednesday afternoon.
The department was called to the grocery store at 67 Newtown Lane at about 3:45 p.m. There was reportedly heavy smoke at the back of the building, near the loading dock in the Reutershan parking lot.
A fire captain who arrived first at the grocery store confirmed there was a fire in the compressor room on the second floor and that the sprinkler system had activated. Chiefs called for the Amagansett Fire Department's rapid intervention team, in case a firefighter had to be rescued from inside the building.
Less than 15 minutes later, firefighters reported the fire had been knocked down. Firefighters were then now on venting smoke. A fire marshal is investigating the cause.
Chiefs called for PSEG-Long Island to shut the power off and a representative from the Suffolk Health Department to respond because smoke did make it into the store. Fire dispatchers discovered it is actually the State Department of Agriculture and Markets that oversees grocery stores.
Check back for more information as it becomes available.