It’s not every day that a fully involved vehicle fire on the beach goes unnoticed and unreported to police, but that’s apparently what happened this week in Riverhead.
A Baiting Hollow resident caught video of the smoldering remains of a burnt-out vehicle on the beach west of the wrecks on the Long Island Sound beach in Baiting Hollow early Tuesday morning.
The fire had completely consumed the interior of the vehicle, blown out all of its windows, melted three of its four tires and all of its plastic or rubber trim, before burning itself out. It was still smoldering at 7:30 Tuesday morning, according to a YouTube post by a Fred Smith.
The Riverhead Police Department had no report of any fire on the beach, or the existence of a burnt-out vehicle on the beach, police said Tuesday morning. The Riverhead Fire Department had not received a call about it either.
Investigating officers located the owner of the vehicle, Police Chief David Hegermiller said yesterday. The Calverton woman “apparently went joyriding on the beach joy” Monday night, got stuck in the sand and, in trying to get the vehicle out of the sand, overheated it, Hegermiller said.
The woman returned the next morning with a friend to try to retrieve the vehicle, the chief said, but found it had been destroyed by fire.
Another video was posted on Facebook on the Friends of the Baiting Hollow Hummingbird Sanctuary page. It shows a tractor arriving at the scene from the east, lingering for a few minutes, circling the burnt-out vehicle and then leaving to the east.
Riverhead Fire Marshal Craig Zitek said the cause of the fire will go officially undetermined, but confirmed the account given by the chief. The fire did not appear to be intentionally set.
Engines, transmissions and tires can overheat when a vehicle is stuck in sand and catch fire, Zitek said.
The vehicle was removed from the beach and towed out of the town beach parking lot yesterday.
The owner was ticketed for operating a vehicle on the beach without a permit, Hegermiller said.
“We’d like to remind the community, if you see something, say something,” the police chief said. 
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