Fire at Hampton Bays construction company near downtown injures 1, chief says

A fire Wednesday at a construction company located between a home fuel provider and a lumberyard in Hampton Bays left a man hospitalized for treatment of burns suffered in the blaze, the hamlet's fire chief told Newsday.

The injured man's condition, including the significance of his burns, as well as his identity, were not available late Wednesday but a friend said he "was OK."

About 6:30 p.m., the Hampton Bays Fire Department responded to a call about a fire at the Montauk Highway headquarters of Cruz Brothers Construction, chief Rick Nydegger said at the scene Wednesday evening.

When firefighters arrived, they discovered three trailers at the back of the property containing construction equipment for a new office project at Cruz Brothers had caught fire, Nydegger said.

 According to a Thursday morning news release from the Southampton Police Department, a "preliminary investigation revealed that an individual attempted to start an ATV, which had been stored in a storage container at the location. It appears that some sort of flammable environment had been created in the storage container which was ignited when the ATV ignition was activated. Additionally, several propane tanks, which were located in the surrounding area, also began to explode." 

EMTs with the Hampton Bays Volunteer Ambulance Corps treated the injured man at the scene before he was airlifted to a hospital for treatment. 

The construction company sits between Riverhead Building Supply and Quogue Sinclair Fuel Inc., both with highly flammable materials such as lumber and fuel oil. Facilities like those are "always a concern" for firefighters, the chief said.

"It was a multifaceted scene because you have ... propane and a lumberyard," Nydegger said at the scene. "This could have gone completely south."

Leo Cruz, one of the co-owners of the construction company, said in a telephone interview the man injured in the fire was not an employee, but a friend, whom he declined to identify. Cruz said the man was "doing work on an ATV at the back of the property ... and I guess the thing caught fire when he was working on it."

"When I got there, they were getting him into the ambulance," Cruz, 36, of Hampton Bays, said. "I talked to him, he was OK. I’m actually on my way to see him now at the hospital."

The fire was deemed under control around 7:30 p.m. and fully extinguished about 30 minutes later, according to Nydegger. 

The fire department "emptied the house" of various firetrucks, including brush trucks to monitor the nearby wooded areas, the chief added. He estimated between 60 and 70 Hampton Bays firefighters, plus others from East Quogue, Flanders and Southampton, responded to the scene.

"I couldn't be more proud of the turnout and the professionalism of my guys," the chief said.

Southampton Town fire marshals are investigating the cause of the fire, Nydegger said.