Fire at Long Island Compost

By LINDA LEUZZI

The Brookhaven Fire Department had just wrapped up a motor vehicle accident when they got a call at 2:41 a.m.  early Monday morning that a fire was raging at the Long Island Compost facility in Yaphank. Flames were already shooting up 50 feet in the air about 6,000 feet north of the main entrance when the first fire trucks pulled in. They had to get to a 50-foot-high pile of tree debris spanning roughly 80,000 square feet across.

“The fire was already well involved at that point,” said Brookhaven Fire Department Chief Pete DiPinto Jr.  Excavators, bulldozers from Brookhaven Town and Long Island Compost employees helped to pull out compost so firefighters could get to the hot spots and the core of the fire, which was contained around 9 a.m. and brought under control about noon. “There were 25 fire departments, three ambulance companies and roughly 150 firefighters involved,” he said. The fire is still under investigation but DiPinto said “dryness was definitely a cause.”

New York State Department of Environmental Conservation spokesperson Bill Fonda said the Long Island Compost pile in question—tree stumps and branches, all land clearing debris—is not subject to DEC regulation regarding its height size. “At this point we plan on talking to the fire department after their investigation and may come back to the site operators and give them some recommendations,” Fonda said. “I say recommendations because we don’t have requirements over the land clearing debris.”

But John Byrne, Councilwoman Connie Kepert’s aide, said the height of the pile is a requirement of the town. “The piles are not supposed to be more than 20 feet high,” he said. “They had a site plan with the town and as part of town approval, the piles weren’t to exceed 20 feet in height.” Diane Barone, who shares a property line on Yaphank Avenue with Long Island Compost, mentioned the height factor as well. She was concerned about her three horses when the fire broke out and getting a trailer to transport them at that hour. “The town of Brookhaven is supposed to be monitoring those piles and they keep saying they’re 30 feet high,” she said.

Via e-mail, Long Island Compost President and CEO Charles Vigliotti issued this statement: “Long Island Compost deeply appreciates the efforts of the many fire departments that responded on Monday. While this is the only fire we’ve had in 10 years and was likely a result of natural causes, we’re reviewing all procedures throughout the facility.”