State DEC directs cleanup of Reeves Beach vehicle fire site

The site of a vehicle fire on Reeves Beach Sunday afternoon has been cleaned up and remediated.

An environmental cleanup contractor removed about five cubic yards of contaminated sand and rock from the site Monday evening, the DEC said. Riverhead Town buildings and grounds division filled the hole left behind with clean sand and reopened the ramp on Tuesday.

Sound Park Heights Civic Association president Eric Biegler called the State DEC spill hotline to report the incident on Sunday evening, after the remains of the charred Jeep was towed off the beach. The fire left behind a mess, Biegler said, and he was concerned about beachgoers, especially children, unwittingly traipsing through the blackened sand, especially with a busy holiday weekend coming up.

No one had put up any barricades, he said.

“I was surprised they all left and left it like that,” Biegler said. ” It was right at the end of the ramp, right where people walk down to the shore, right where kids play.”

Not to mention what would wash into the water if the tide came up and saturated the site, he noted.

Biegler said he recalled how the site of a previous vehicle fire on the beach left behind shards of glass, pieces of metal, oil and “who knows what chemicals.” That site was off the beaten path, though, unlike this one.

He was on the beach Sunday afternoon and spoke to a police officer. “I said I thought it would be a good idea to notify the DEC, but it was like, ‘yeah, but go away.’ I called the police department and they said it was up to the officer on scene.”

The DEC confirmed the agency was notified by a citizen’s call to the spill hotline Sunday at about 7:30 p.m.

A DEC spill responder arrived on scene at approximately 9:30 p.m. that evening, performed soil screening, and determined soil contamination had taken place, a DEC spokesperson said. The DEC notified the Town of Riverhead engineering department, which hired a cleanup contractor Eastern Environmental.

After being contacted by the DEC investigator, the town then placed barricades around the site of the spill, Biegler said.

On Monday evening, Eastern Environmental used a guzzle truck to remove sand and rock at the scene, the DEC said. It removed approximately five cubic yards of materials.

Riverhead Fire Marshal Craig Zitek said his office was never notified of the incident either.

“We found out about it when we saw it on RiverheadLOCAL,” Zitek said.

Usually the fire chief on scene or the police officer on scene will ask dispatch to notify the fire marshal’s office to investigate, Zitek said.

Without investigating the scene, an investigation into the cause of the fire becomes difficult, the fire marshal said.

Riverhead Police Chief David Hegermiller, when asked why the police did not notify DEC of the incident, said he assumed the officer on scene did not see a need for environmental remediation.

“Maybe it wasn’t obvious until the car was removed,” Hegermiller said. The chief said he would look into it.

Hegermiller said he was not sure whether an officer was on duty at the beach late Sunday afternoon when the operator of the Jeep drove down the ramp to the beach at around 5 p.m., roughly an hour before the beach is open to vehicles with permits. The chief said he’d be looking into that as well.

Riverhead police have been stationing officers at the town beaches to enforce town rules regarding beach use by residents only, maximum crowd sizes, use of face coverings and adherence to social distancing requirements.