The wildfires that broke out on Long Island Saturday afternoon and spread over hundreds of acres appeared to be accidental, caused by a failed attempt to make s’mores in a backyard, local officials said on Monday.
The preliminary determination came after detectives with the Suffolk County Police Department conducted an investigation into the cause of the fires, interviewing 911 callers and using drones and helicopters to determine whether arson had played a role.
What started as a backyard fire in Manorville, near Sunrise Highway on Long Island’s South Shore, became several blazes as strong winds contributed to the embers’ spread, officials said at a news conference on Monday. The fires were under control by Sunday morning and were 100 percent contained on Monday, said Amanda Lefton, the acting commissioner of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.
Kevin Catalina, the Suffolk County police commissioner, said that around 9:30 a.m. on Saturday, a person in Manorville was trying to make s’mores but was initially unable to light a fire because of the wind. The person used cardboard to light the fire, he said, and soon the backyard area went up in flames.
That fire was put out within an hour, the commissioner said, but a few hours later, another fire was reported less than a quarter mile southeast of the initial fire. “The wind was blowing very strongly from the northwest, so that path makes perfect sense,” he said, adding that two additional fires were reported later.
“It is believed that the embers from each fire traveled and continuously started more fires,” he said.
Commissioner Catalina said that while that was the working theory of the fire’s cause, the police department planned to interview every 911 caller and rule out other possibilities before making a final determination.
The area affected, the Long Island Pine Barrens, is an ecosystem that depends on fire in order to flourish. But officials said that the proliferation of the southern pine beetle, a species that kills pines and leaves behind bone-dry tree bark, might have also contributed to the rapid spread of the wildfires.
“There are dead trees all over because of them,” Edward P. Romaine, the Suffolk County executive, said over the weekend, adding that thousands of trees in the area had succumbed to the insect over the last decade.
The National Weather Service warned early on Saturday on social media that low humidity and northwest winds of 30 to 35 miles per hour would create an “elevated risk for fire spread.”
Gov. Kathy Hochul declared a state of emergency in response to the fires and instituted a burn ban on Long Island. The National Guard was among the agencies on the ground working to extinguish the fire. An HH-60W Jolly Green II helicopter from the 106th Rescue Wing also helped with the response.
More than 80 fire departments and 10 emergency medical service units responded from Suffolk County, Mr. Romaine said during the news conference.
“Without the combined efforts of everyone involved, we would not have been able to stop this fire,” Mr. Romaine said. “This was a fire that could have been far more serious than it was.”
The fires burned two structures, and one firefighter was hospitalized with second-degree burns to the face, officials said over the weekend. Another firefighter suffered a head injury.