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Fire marshals investigating fires along Nugent Drive

PAUL SQUIRE PHOTO | Riverhead firefighters douse the brush fires from a brush truck Thursday afternoon.
PAUL SQUIRE PHOTO | Riverhead firefighters douse the brush fires from a brush truck Thursday afternoon.

Firefighters rushed to Nugent Drive in Calverton Thursday afternoon after five brush fires broke out simultaneously along the road, Riverhead fire officials said.

“[The fires] didn’t get going too much because [the brush] is still green,” said Riverhead third assistant chief Pete Jackman. No one was injured in the blazes, fire officials said.

The small fires were under control in about 40 minutes.

Mr. Jackman said that while it’s not unusual for brush fires to start in the summer, but said these fires were out of the ordinary.

“It’s just weird that there’s [all] of them in a row,” he said.

The cause of the fires is under investigation by the Southampton and Brookhaven Town fire marshals.

Southampton Town police alerted Riverhead firefighters of the fires about 4:50 p.m., said Riverhead second assistant fire chief Kevin Brooks. The full Riverhead department responded to the fire, along with Flanders Fire Department in brush trucks and fire engines.

Manorville firefighters were also called to the scene, but dismissed before they arrived. Local ambulance crews were on standby in case the fire grew more dangerous.

The fires began along a roughly half mile stretch on the north side of Nugent Drive near Pinehurst Boulevard west of the Suffolk County center in Riverside. The fires, which burned near the fences that separate the side of the road from the forest, did not cause any major property damage.

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