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SMALL PLANE CRASHES ON FIRE ISLAND, NO ONE HURT
Paul Santopietro was flying a small plane over the Great South Bay Sunday morning when the
engine quit. He had three options: the South Shore, blanketed with houses; the
strip of sand on Fire Island; or the water. He chose the beach.
http://www.newsday.com/long-island/plane-crash-lands-on-fire-island-passengers-unhurt-1.1464466
The 59 year
old Providence, Rhode Island resident glided his single
engine plane, a borrowed Ryan Navion, just east of Point of
Woods on September 20th, a bright Sunday morning, at 9:45 AM. He had
lost power a minute and a half before.
His 25 years of experience as a flight instructor, glider and banner tow pilot
stood him well and neither of his two passengers, both pilots, were injured.
Later Santopietro said “There was a long stretch of beach with nobody on it…if there had
been people on the beach, I would have put it in the ocean.” They called 911
and said “‘I just crashed a plane onto your beach… I’m not sure where”. Suffolk
County police took them to the Brookhaven airport where a friend flew them
back.
When
contacted by phone, his friend Robert Giacobone, who
loaned him the plane for a trip from Rhode Island to Virginia to look at another
plane for sale, said “He’s a great
pilot. I’m just happy that they were fine. I don’t care about the plane, as
long as they’re OK.”
Now
under investigation by the FAA, Santopietro added “It
could’ve been a lot worse”.
NEWSBRIEFS
Ocean
Beach Summer Club Fire – Photos
October 13, 2009
Fair Harbor Fire Department’s official report:
The FHFD was called out by Suffolk
County Fire Rescue and Emergency services ("SCFRES") at approx 8PM on
Tuesday night (10/13) for a working structure fire in Summer Club which is
part of the OBFD fire protection area. 14 members of the FHFD
responded. We made contact with OBFD command and were requested to handle
fire operations on the west side of the incident. We were the first unit
to arrive on the west side of the incident and found three houses ablaze and a
large brush fire between our apparatus and the houses on fire. There was
a moderately strong north to northeast wind that night which was pushing the
fire to the south and west which was the direction from which we were commencing
our attack. We immediately deployed 2 hose lines to extinguish the brush
fire and begin suppressing the house fire which was now threatening to engulf a
fourth home which was located on the ocean downwind of the fire. We
were called out again by SCFRES approx 20 minutes after arriving on the
fire scene to dispatch our EMS unit to respond to a report of an
overturned vehicle on the beach in Fair Harbor. We were given
erroneous call locations by SCFRES and finally located the overturned vehicle
in Saltaire. Our ambulance transported the
victim to Good Samaritan Hospital as Saltaire did not
have an EMTs available and
most of its members were already in OB at the fire. We were on scene for approximately four hours and managed, in conjunction
with the OBFD, Saltaire FD and Kismet FD, to
prevent the ocean front home from catching fire and to extinguish the fire in
the other three homes. Two of those homes are completely destroyed with
the third home suffering moderate damage. Firefighters also responded
from Ocean Bay Park, East Islip and Bay Shore due to the severity and size of
the fire.
Submitted by Heather J. McDonald, Esq.
Newsday reported:A fire that burned two homes on Fire Island appears to be accidental, Suffolk police said Wednesday. The blaze broke out on West Walk in Ocean Beach at about 8:15
p.m., according to broadcast reports.
Officials said two people were
injured in the Fire Island blaze, which started at on West Walk. The injuries
were not considered serious, the report said.
Firefighters were able to prevent a third Fire Island home from
being destroyed. There is no word yet on the exact cause of the fires.
Grove
Hotel & Gerard Walk Fires Send Firefighters into Pre-Dawn Combat
By Bruce-Michael Gelbert as seen on Fire Island Q News.com
FD Hosing down the north
side of the Grove Hotel photos
by CJ Mingolelli
Cherry Grove volunteer Fire
Department members went into action, at approximately 1 and 2 a.m. on September
21, when fires broke out on the west side of Gerard Walk and on the north side
of the Grove Hotel, across Bayview Walk from the
Community House.
Firefighters rushing
to get water to the fire
The first was a garbage fire that
left boards scorched. The second left more than 17 hotel rooms damaged by
flames, smoke and water, due to a fire that began in a storage shed.
Q News spoke to hotel Assistant Manager Wendy Lewis, at the hotel office, the
following afternoon concerning the fire.
Fire Marshals from Long Island, arson experts, and police had been inspecting
the site and investigating all morning and, as of 1 p.m. on September 22, were
officially considering the fire to have been of indeterminate cause. Guests in
rooms adjacent to those affected had been relocated, but because of melted
wires, power had not yet been restored.
the aftermath
The hotel is due to close for the
season on September 27, following the Arts Project of Cherry Grove "Night
at the Oscars" ball on the 26th at the Ice Palace there.
Tax error leads to Fire Island residents being overbilled
December 15, 2009 by JENNIFER MALONEY
About 450 Fire Island homeowners have been overbilled for the fire district
portion of their 2010 property tax bill because of a clerical error, fire
district and Islip Town
officials said Tuesday.
Islip officials are considering how to revise the tax bills and reimburse
residents who already have made the payment, town comptroller Joseph Ludwig
said.
The Fair Harbor <http://www.newsday.com/topics/Fair_Harbor%2C_NY> fire district levied $140,071 more than necessary, resulting in an 88
percent jump in district taxes from last year, records show.
The district's taxes should have risen just 21 percent, an increase needed to
pay debt service on a bond for a firehouse renovation approved last year,
district commissioner Heather McDonald said.
Records show that the Fair Harbor district, which provides firefighting
services for two neighboring fire districts, submitted an incorrect tax levy
figure to the town.
The figure included what the neighboring districts needed, but those two - Lonelyville and Dunewood - had
submitted their totals independently.
Last year, records show, the Fair Harbor district provided a breakdown of the
budgets for the three districts, and in separate documents correctly listed its
own tax levy, excluding the funds for the other two.
The town comptroller's office is responsible for using the figures provided by
all taxing districts in the town to calculate tax bills, Ludwig said.
McDonald, who Monday sent an e-mail to Fair Harbor residents blaming the town
for the error, said in an interview Tuesday: "I don't really know how it
happened. As I understand it, everything was submitted the same way it was
submitted every year. It's not something we take lightly. What we have to do
right now is get it fixed."
Fair Harbor District chairman Brett Roberts called the tax billing "a
clerical error" and declined to comment further.
Gena Goldstein, a seasonal Fair Harbor resident who
lives in NYC, said she already had paid the taxes in full.
"I did think it was kind of exorbitant, but I paid it because if you don't
pay on time, there's a penalty," said Goldstein, one of 447 homeowners
affected. " . . . The bottom line is, they've got money that doesn't
belong to them."
Islip officials are expected to meet Wednesday to discuss a potential remedy.
Property taxes can be paid in two installments and are due on Jan. 10 and May
10.
The town will submit an amended tax roll to Suffolk <http://www.newsday.com/topics/Suffolk_County%2C_NY> County at the county legislature's first meeting in January, Ludwig said.
It is unclear whether revised bills can be sent out before the first property
tax payments, he said.
http://www.newsday.com/long-island/suffolk/tax-error-leads-to-fire-island-residents-being-overbilled-1.1655759 <http://www.newsday.com/long-island/suffolk/tax-error-leads-to-fire-island-residents-being-overbilled-1.1655759>
