New York governor declares emergency as brush fires burn in Long Island

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul declared a state of emergency Saturday after several wind-driven brush fires broke out in New York’s Long Island, sending large smoke plumes into the air and shutting down a highway.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul declared a state of emergency Saturday after several wind-driven brush fires broke out in New York’s Long Island, sending large smoke plumes into the air and shutting down a highway. Fire crews in Suffolk County responded to at least three “major brush fires” on the East End, county executive Ed Romaine said. The fires have shut down a stretch of Sunrise Highway, the New York Department of Transportation said. There were no evacuation orders and no residents in the fire’s direct path as of Saturday evening but at least two structures have burned and crews rushing to stop the fires’ spread were contending with strong winds, authorities said. The fires burned a structure near the Francis S. Gabreski Airport, where personnel were evacuated as a precautionary measure starting around 1:45 p.m., a spokesman told the Associated Press in a statement. “We’re in a better place right now but we are very concerned about the overnight, and the increase of winds,” Hochul told CNN’s Jessica Dean Saturday. “This could be a multi-day event.” The fires are burning in a nature preserve, but “it would not take much for the fires to jump outside that area and head toward populated areas,” Hochul said, noting the community of Riverhead is three miles away.