For Long Island Firefighters, 1995 Pine Barren Blaze Was An Intense Learning Experience

WESTHAMPTON BEACH, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) -- Twenty years ago on Monday, a firestorm erupted on Long Island's East End.

Flames leaped 200 feet into the sky, communities were evacuated as firefighters who had been trained to put out house fires, found themselves ill prepared to battle blazes in dense windswept woods of the Long Island pine barrens.

Dean Culver was Westhampton Beach's fire chief at the time. Culver was credited with saving lives and homes as the fires raged unchecked toward beachfront communities.

"Embers landed five miles away," Culver said.

As CBS2's Jennifer McLogan reported, not a drop of rain had fallen in the pine barrens all month in August of 1995, and a cigarette may have started the whole thing.

On Monday, officials recalled the anxious days.

"We all remember where we were. I know I do, seeing the impact of this, and the fear," Southampton Town Supervisor Anna Throne Holst said.

"You could smell and taste the burning in the air. It was a massive wildfire," Brookhaven Town Supervisor Ed Romaine said.

Experts said the Pine Barrens are a fire dependent ecosystem, and that more prescribed burns are needed to open pitch pine seed pods and clear vegetation.

Prevention and preparation were needed.

"We tried. We had brush trucks in the woods trying to stop it there, but it just got away from us and kept burning toward Westhampton Village," Culver said.

Officials said the fire exposed the need for better communication, training, and more modern gear.

"The bravery of the firefighters and good fortune served us well last time. Now we have to make sure we are taking affirmative action, so that when the next fire comes along we are equipped to deal with it in every way," Culver said.

On public land that means creating fire breaks so flames can't travel.

For homeowners it means keeping leaves, shrubs, bushes, and wood chips away from houses and having fireproofed shingles.

Flames were still burning in September. The fire took more than a week to finally douse. More than 7 square miles had burned, miraculously no one was injured.