Smithtown FD-Large rubbish fire at Winter Brothers Recycling

February 9, 2020 At 2039 hours, the Smithtown and Kings Park Fire Departments were dispatched to Winters Brothers Recycling Center on Lawrence Road in regard to a report of smoke coming from the building. Units arrived and found heavy fire in the building. As arriving units forced entry onto the property and began positioning their apparatus, mutual aid was requested from the Commack Fire Department for an engine, ladder and a heavy rescue, St. James Fire Department for an engine, and the Hauppauge Fire Department for an engine and a ladder to the scene. Crews laid over 2000 feet of fire hose from two different fire hydrants on Lawrence Road to feed master streams on both the Kings Park and Commack Fire Department ladder trucks, as well as numerous hose lines off other rigs.
Close to 50 firefighters battled this difficult and stubborn fire in subfreezing temperatures until after 3AM. Firefighters from Commack and Hauppauge Fire Departments commandeered an excavator and a payloader from the site, which were used to break down the roughly 20 foot high by 60 foot long by 100 foot wide mountain of debris. The Town of Smithtown Highway Department sent an excavator and a payloader to the scene. The Town excavator took the place of the first one, which broke down and the entire pile was pulled apart, removed from the building and extinguished.
Once the fire was extinguished, these same, exhausted and frozen firefighters had to clean the rigs, pickup and pack all of the hose and then return to their stations to clean their tools and gear.
At that point, the scene was turned over to Fire Marshals from the Town of Smithtown Department of Public Safety and Detectives from the Suffolk County Police Departments arson squad.
While the fire investigation was underway, the Smithtown Highway Department crews had to clear the water and all of the debris that had run out of the building (including wood, boxes, containers of paint, sparkle and other items, clothing and other items) and onto Lawrence Road. This took over an hour. The roadway was reopened just before 5AM.
The Nesconset Fire Department sent an engine and Commack Ambulance sent an ambulance to Smithtown Fire house on Elm Ave to cover the district for the duration. Those crews handled ten fire calls and two EMS runs.
In total, the fire departments operated here with 9 engines, four ladders, three heavy rescue trucks, 4 amublances and numerous other support vehicles. Two firefighters suffered minor injuries.

On a side note, On February, 2004, a similar fire occurred at this same site.
Smithtown Fire Department is dispatched to a report of a building fire. Crews arrive to find a 1999 Kobelco 220 Excavator burning on top of of a pile of demolition debris being sorted within the building. Smithtown, Commack and Kings Park crews extinguished the fire in the machine and then worked to extinguish the burning piles of rubbish. Smithtown Highway Department sent a bulldozer to the scene. Units operated throughout the day to extinguish this fire.