NY Gov. Hochul declares state of emergency amid Long Island brush fires

The governor issued the state of emergency declaration after fast-moving brush fires broke out on Long Island on Saturday afternoon.

Firefighters in Long Island were battling a fire in Westhampton Sunday morning after several brush fires broke out in Suffolk County on Saturday afternoon.

On Sunday morning, those blazes were "80-90% contained," according to Michael Martino, a spokesperson for Suffolk County Executive Ed Romaine.

The fast-moving blazes came after the National Weather Service issued a warning of elevated fire risk in the area on Saturday.

Videos depicting immense clouds of billowing smoke were widely shared across social media.

Gov. Kathy Hochul issued a state of emergency in light of the fires. She said in a statement that the state's National Guard is providing air support, and that personnel from several other state agencies have also been dispatched to assist.

“I have also deployed personnel from the Office of Emergency Management, Office of Fire Prevention and Control, Department of Transportation, Department of Environmental Conservation, State Parks and the New York State Police to assist Suffolk County’s response to this crisis,” she said.

Some likened the fires to the Sunrise Fire of 1995, which burned 4,500 acres of pine barrens and forced more than 400 people to evacuate.

That disaster prompted changes to Long Island’s firefighting policies and infrastructure, according to a 2015 Newsday retrospective. Officials questioned whether the dense area was being sufficiently cleared out with regular prescribed burns that would remove fuel for potential wildfires.