Vacant Baiting Hollow home burns, firefighter injured in mutual-aid response

A vacant single-story home at 16 Woodcliff Drive in Baiting Hollow went up in heavy fire Thursday morning, sending a column of smoke over the wooded North Fork neighborhood and drawing about 50 firefighters from Riverhead and surrounding departments.

The Riverhead Fire Department said the alarm came in at about 9:55 a.m. on April 16, 2026. Chief Piotr Kurzyna saw the smoke while responding and transmitted a working fire after arriving at the scene, where crews found a residence with a heavy fire load. Riverhead sent three engines, two ladder trucks, one water tanker and two support vehicles to the blaze.

Mutual aid came from the Jamesport, Wading River and Ridge fire departments, while Riverhead Town Volunteer Ambulance also responded. The Westhampton Beach Fire Department stood by at Riverhead Fire Department headquarters to cover additional calls. One firefighter from a mutual-aid company was injured, treated and released at the scene. Two nearby residences were spared from heavy fire damage.

The fire was cleared at 11:38 a.m., but the cause remained under investigation by the Riverhead Town Fire Marshal’s Office. With the house vacant, the immediate concern was less about displacement than the danger the structure posed to neighboring homes and the surrounding wooded land near Long Island Sound. In a place like Baiting Hollow, where homes, woods and open space sit close together, a fast-moving house fire can quickly become a broader public-safety problem.

The injury also underscored the risk faced by volunteer and mutual-aid firefighters across the East End. The National Fire Protection Association estimates that 53,575 municipal firefighters were injured in the line of duty nationwide in 2024, with 16,275 injuries occurring on the fireground. That toll comes as local departments continue to hold recruitment events and Riverhead weighs tax incentives aimed at helping recruit and retain volunteer firefighters and EMS workers.