Fire at Long
Island Compost
Long Island Advance
July 15, 2010
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.”
