Tough Long Island biz owner saves truck by driving it away from wildfire — while it's in flames
A tough Long Island business owner drove one of his trucks — while it was on fire — to save it from the wildfires that raged through the Hamptons over the weekend.
Mark Cirillo, 64, battled to save AutoGate Systems Inc., his business of the last 20 years, as flames closed in on his shop in Westhampton Beach on Saturday and eventually burned down a shed he used to store wood and building materials, damaged projects for clients and melted part of a truck.
'When I was getting the vehicles out, the last one was on fire,' Cirillo told The Post on Sunday. 'It was hairy! The smoke was so thick that you couldn't see. It was so hot, it was burning my hands on the steering wheel.'
Chilling video footage of the fire taken by Cirillo captured bright orange and red flames fanning out behind a building belonging to his automatic-gate business.
In the clip, Cirillo can be heard crying out, 'My God! My whole place! F–k!' as the blaze and thick gray clouds of smoke spread behind his building.
Cirillo said the blaze was so hot and powerful, it 'burned my hat and blew it off my head.'
But Cirillo said he was lucky things weren't much worse.
'I was fortunate. I was able to move the vehicles out of the way,' he said. 'Just as quick as the fire came up, it blew over us and went across the street.
'Every fire department on Long Island was here. It was something to see,' he said.
Officials said at least 90 agencies, including fire departments and EMS units, responded to the four blazes that broke out Saturday around 1 p.m. in Center Moriches, East Moriches, Eastport and Westhampton.
'The Apache helicopters were dropping 500-gallon buckets of water right here,' Cirillo said.
'All I can say is, you know what prayer does,' Cirillo said, pointing to the building that remained standing after the fires. 'We were so lucky. I never saw so many brush trucks! There were 50 or 60 of them. You saw 10-wheelers full of guys coming up the Sunrise Highway.'
Cirillo said crews came from Islip Mount Sinai to 'save the buildings.'
On top of losing one building, Cirillo also had big plastic bins holding metal building materials that completely melted into liquid, and trucks that had been moved out of the building had blistered paint and melted light lens covers on them.
Additional large wooden gates Cirillo's company produced for a client were still smouldering Sunday morning.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Yahoo
Strawberry Festival prepares for thousands of visitors with rain in the forecast
It will be a busy weekend for the Troy Strawberry Festival with organizers expecting at least 150,000 visitors. They say they are prepared, and have a plan in case of inclement weather. [DOWNLOAD: Free WHIO-TV News app for alerts as news breaks] News Center 7's Malik Patterson speaks with the event organizers about the Strawberry Festival and their plans if weather isn't favorable LIVE on News Center 7 at 11. People in the area stopped by early to check out vendors before tomorrow's official start, including Jeremy Ovenshire. TRENDING STORIES: Heroic local pharmacist saves 2 lives in one shift 'Grateful that I'm here;' woman recounts chaotic wrong-way chase on I-75 that ended in crash Man hides from police in retention pond after he 'went to get a soda' 'You see a lot more locals come out on Friday night, especially ones who are already downtown,' Ovenshire said. Ovenshire grew up in Troy and remembers the past Strawberry Festivals. 'As a little kid, we were on the levee, you know, and there was hardly anything up here, and it just kept getting bigger and bigger,' Ovenshire said. The city started prepping for the festival Thursday morning by putting up barriers. 'You don't want to have that always on the back of your mind,' Ovenshire said. 'Like, man, what if this isn't as safe as it used to be?' Jessica Silver is the head chair of the Strawberry Festival. Silver says they have shaded areas for festival goers. 'Festival location that our volunteers can come in and like, take rests and have some water,' Silver said. 'We also have EMS present on both locations and we have Kettering Health here.' Ovenshire recommends checking the weather before heading out to the festival. 'You know the forecast, it's not that bad,' Ovenshire said. 'And people still come out no matter what.' Storm Center 7 will be tracking this weekend's conditions. [SIGN UP: WHIO-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter]
New York Post
5 days ago
- New York Post
New Yorkers skip work to head to beaches, parks as sun squashes weeks of soggy weather: ‘It's about time'
New Yorkers played hooky and ditched their responsibilities Thursday to beat the heat as temperatures kissed 88° — a welcome roast following weeks of wet weather. The city's beaches were lined with umbrellas and parks were packed with sunbathers who were relishing in the first truly hot day of the year so far. 'It's about time. It's perfect weather for the beach,' Mariah S., 58, of Ridgewood told The Post from her and her husband's hideaway next to the Coney Island boardwalk. Advertisement 6 Temperatures hung in the high 80s on Thursday. Stephen Yang Joseph, 63, added: 'It's been rainy, muggy. You don't know what to wear. It was drizzling and never stopped.' The couple had taken the day off work, finding 'people watching' at the iconic Brooklyn beach much more alluring than their respective jobs in banking and at a private school, which unlike public schools, didn't have the day off for Islam holiday Eid al-Adha. Advertisement 'The people are very interesting on the boardwalk. Some people just come out and dance around. Some people wear weird outfits,' said Mariah. Toronto tourist Kaiya Nixon, 21, was itching to get her bikini on and dive headfirst into the waters — which were estimated at a chilly 60 degrees. 6 Alice Moore initially tried to stay dry at the Washington Square Fountain, but couldn't resist a dip. Stephen Yang 6 Dozens of others followed suit after Alice dunked beneath the surface. Stephen Yang Advertisement The political science student was surprised that other sunbathers, like Mariah and Joseph, had skipped a day of work to enjoy the weather. 'You're allowed to take the day off from work cause it's sunny? I never heard of that before,' Nixon said. '[Canadians] wouldn't take the day off to enjoy the weather but they'd complain all day while on shift about the fact that they're missing the gorgeous weather,' she continued. 'One thing about people in Toronto is they never stop talking about weather. It's part of their personalities. They are worse than the Brits.' Advertisement David, of Bushwick, however, couldn't afford to take the day off, but instead made the beach his office. The 29-year-old, who works in project management, simply kept his laptop's camera and audio off during his work meetings — one of which was ongoing as he talked with The Post. 'It feels f–king awesome. I'm happy to be out here while I work,' David explained. 'I don't have to be on camera so I figured why not work at the beach if you have the opportunity.' 'You gotta enjoy the weather while you can.' His friend Leela, 27, did call out of her data management job to enjoy the weather, choosing instead to sip on $10 pina colada nutcrackers with David. 'It's a nice day and we wanted to come to the beach. It would have been too risky to work and come to the beach,' she said. 6 Monty 'The Legend' spends about 200 days per year at Washington Square Park. Stephen Yang Advertisement In Washington Square Park, Monty 'The Legend' emphasized he had been waiting for weeks for the weather to finally turn balmy. 'It's a beautiful, beautiful spot to sit here and just hang out, it's a good spot,' he said. The 90-year-old iconic fixture of the Lower Manhattan park estimates he spends around 200 days per year sunbathing on the grounds, saying he's there 'every day unless it's raining' — even in the winter. The one constant is the sun reflector that Monty relies on to get his intense tan. Advertisement 6 Rocco celebrated his first dip in the fountain on Thursday. Stephen Yang 'Some people can't take it,' Monty said about braving the cold in the name of enjoying the park. Dozens of other parkgoers dipped their feet in the Washington Square Fountain until little Alice Moore dove headfirst into the water — igniting a trend inspiring others to follow suit. The 7-year-old, along with her mom and sister, had ditched their shopping plans, splitting from the rest of their family in favor of the cool relief. Advertisement 'I also had a double cone!' Alice said. 6 The metro area had been plagued by rain for weeks. Stephen Yang The family of six from Salt Lake City had to change their plans for the afternoon after Alice soaked her clothes — they were planning to go straight to the Museum of Natural History before the young girl stood directly beneath the fountain spouts. 'We're more interested in parks,' her mom, Katie, said. Advertisement Several dogs were also splashing around the fountain, including 6-month-old pitbull Rocco. Mylah De Leon brought the young dog to the park for the very first time as part of its training — she knew the greenspace would be crowded and would provide the perfect opportunity for the dog to get exposure therapy to large crowds. And Rocco handled it like a champ, though he was a little afraid of the Jazz band playing nearby. 'I'm not really a summer person, like this is the hottest I would want to be just walking around outside, but today is gorgeous,' De Leon, 52, of Gramercy, said. 'It's not humid, it's so nice. And feel that breeze? I feel better already.' Her three teenagers were fully taking advantage of the heat — one was splashing around at Rockaway Beach, another was in Central Park with friends and her daughter was sunbathing on the family's rooftop. But the best place to be for De Leon was in the park, which she spent her own teenage summers cooling off in the fountain. 'You know the water is clean because [the city] knows kids will go swimming in it!' she said.
Yahoo
7 days ago
- Yahoo
NYC should brace for smoke from Canadian wildfires, but it won't affect residents how you think, expert says
New York City should brace for poor air quality and a hazy sky on Wednesday — but the less-than-stellar conditions can't all be blamed on the ongoing Canadian wildfires raging up north. The National Weather Service issued an air quality alert for all of the Big Apple and the rest of the tri-state area, warning people of certain ages or with health conditions to take it easy as they try to get through the middle of the work week. The hazardous air is expected to last between 11 a.m. and 11 p.m., but it can't be attributed to the smoke from the massive fires ripping through parts of Canada. Instead, plain old summer weather is the likely culprit. The combination of warm temperatures, lots of sunshine and little wind will worsen the air quality in the greater metro area, AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Carl Erickson told The Post. 'The Canadian wildfire smoke, that's more into the upper atmosphere, just kind of causing the sky to look hazy,' he said, noting the smoke isn't close enough to the surface to affect people's breathing. 'It'll be more visual,' making the sunrise and sunset look more vibrant, he added. He said air quality alerts will be a common sight over the summer months, especially in urban areas like the Big Apple. The fires north of the border led to rough conditions in parts of the Midwest, where some states have put out alerts that their air quality is 'very unhealthy.' The Minneapolis-St-Paul area reeked of smoke Tuesday, even as rain dampened some of the unbearable smell. More than 27,000 Canadians in three provinces were forced to flee their homes since last month, with the smoke even reaching some of Europe, causing hazy skies, but not unhealthy air. The city grappled with a surreal orange sky and awful air quality when smoke from Canadian wildfires descended on New York in June 2023. With Post wires.
