Raging Fire Engulfs Parts of Long Island; Emergency Declared

Firefighters in New York were continuing to battle at least one brush fire in a wooded stretch of Long Island on Sunday as officials warned that high wind gusts would leave the region vulnerable to additional blazes.

- Associated Press

NEW YORK:

Governor Kathy Hochul declared a state of emergency Saturday after four separate fires broke out across large swaths of Long Island's Pine Barrens region, prompting closures to the highway and evacuations of a military base. "This is still out of control at this moment," Hochul told Long Island TV station News 12. "We're seeing people having to be evacuated from the Westhampton area."

As of Sunday morning (local time), three of those fires had been contained, while one was still burning in the hamlet of Westhampton, according to Michael Martino, a spokesperson for Suffolk County Executive Ed Romaine.