Town of Southampton, NY May 5, 2025 — The Hampton Bays Fire Department successfully responded to and extinguished a vehicle fire on the South side of Ponquogue Bridge Sunday morning testing their temporary Ponquogue Bridge response plans.

The Hampton Bays Fire Department was called into action early Sunday morning for a vehicle fire on the South side of the Ponquogue Bridge. Hampton Bays FD was activated at 5:31AM for a reported vehicle fire on the South side of the bridge. Hampton Bays FD was on scene by approximately 5:40AM with their old brush truck as part of the temporary emergency Ponquogue Bridge access plan. The department quickly acted to hook up to a nearby hydrant and get water on the vehicle to extinguish the fire. While these actions were already in motion, East Quogue Fire Department had been simultaneously activated and was also on scene minutes later after responding from the West as a supplemental force to Hampton Bays FD.

“The plans that we put into place worked seamlessly and effectively for this incident,” said Hampton Bays Fire Chief Rick Nydegger. “Although the weight limits of the Bridge are unable to support a full, traditional, response, our plans to work with limited Hampton Bays assets and to coordinate with our neighbors to the West went very well,” Nydegger went on to say.

“Residents and visitors should feel comforted in knowing that the Hampton Bays Fire Department has developed a great plan to deal with emergencies on the South side of the Ponquogue Bridge in their fire district. Although they may still only be able to get limited assets over the bridge due to the temporary weight restrictions, the successful, and timely, response of Hampton Bays FD and their mutual aid partners from East Quogue FD for this fire demonstrates the effectiveness of their plans,” said Town Emergency Manager Ryan Murphy.

The Southampton Town Fire Marshals Office was also activated to respond to the call. Although the investigation report from the fire has not yet been finished, there is no suspicious cause suspected at this time.