Brush fire burns about six acres of woods in Manorville

A brush fire burned about six acres of Manorville woods this evening.

The alarm came in at about 5:20 p.m. for a wildfire off North Street in he vicinity of South Street in Manorville.

Manorville Fire Department responded and called in Ridge and Yaphank fire departments for assistance. Manorville Community Ambulance, state forest rangers, and Suffolk County Police responded to the fire, located west of Weeks Avenue.

Manorville Fire Chief Howie Snow said there were four brush trucks, three pumpers and two tankers at the scene. Firefighters contained the blaze pretty quickly, Snow said, but would be working into the night to mop up the many hot spots in the area. The cause of the fire is under investigation.

The National Weather Service issued a red flag warning for wildfire risk today, citing extremely low relative humidity and strong winds, a combination of factors that make the rapid spread of wildfire very likely. The warning, originally set ot expire at 8 p.m. was extended this afternoon to 10 p.m.

The Manorville Fire District was the scene of a very large wildfire in April 2012. That fire burned more than 1,000 acres. Volunteers from every fire department in the county responded to assist Manorville in an effort that took two days to complete.

Peter Blasl contributed reporting.

RiverheadLOCAL photos by Thomas Lambui
Click thumbnails to enlarge images
{gallery}2014/slideshows/2014_0424_manorville_brush_fire{/gallery}