A fire tore through Winter Bros. Shipyard on Athasca Road in Islip Monday evening, injuring two firefighters and prompting emergency crews to call in state and town hazmat teams to check whether fuel or chemicals had spilled into the adjacent canal. The blaze started just before 7 p.m. and spread across both the first and second floors of the commercial building before crews from Islip, East Islip and Bay Shore got it under control in about an hour.
The Islip Fire Department said it received multiple calls reporting the commercial building fire at the shipyard, according to News12 Long Island. No one was inside the building when flames broke out, and two firefighters were treated for injuries before being released. The cause of the fire remains under investigation, and that probe is continuing, per the fire department's account relayed to the station.
Suffolk County Police called the arson squad to the scene, a routine step for major structural fires in the county. The Suffolk County Police Department Arson Section is typically tasked with determining origin and cause on significant commercial fires, working alongside town fire marshals to examine physical evidence and rule in or out any criminal activity, per Suffolk County Fire Rescue and Emergency Services Commission materials describing the unit's role.
Why the Canal Became the Focus
The Islip Fire Department requested that the state Department of Environmental Conservation and the Islip Town Hazmat Team investigate the possibility of a fuel spill or chemical runoff into the canal, and fire officials in Suffolk County made the same request of both agencies. The shipyard sits along Athasca Road, a waterfront industrial corridor south of Montauk Highway where commercial and residential properties directly border canal water connecting to Great South Bay, according to property records reviewed by Parcel Intel.
That geography raises the stakes whenever a fire breaks out there. Islip's municipal canal network feeds directly into tidal tributaries such as Orowoc Creek and the South Shore Estuary Reserve, waters subject to state non-point source pollution monitoring and strict vessel waste rules, per guidance from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. Federal area contingency plans and state emergency guidelines call for immediate deployment of containment booms and prompt notification to environmental agencies whenever hazardous chemical or fuel runoff threatens navigable coastal waters, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Hazmat Risks Common to Boatyard Fires
Fires at shipyards and boat maintenance facilities can involve fire, explosion and chemical hazards associated with paints, resins, solvents and marine fuels. Marine fiberglass repair work in New York commonly relies on styrene resins and organic peroxide catalysts, which are classified as ignitable hazardous wastes under state regulations, per New York Sea Grant guidance for marina operators.
The Town of Islip has a Hazmat Team, according to reporting on the response to the fire. The DEC was requested to investigate possible runoff from the Athasca Road blaze.
What's Still Unknown
It remains unclear exactly what sparked the fire or how much fuel, resin or other chemical material was stored inside the shipyard building at the time. It is also not yet known whether the DEC's inspection turned up any actual contamination in the canal. Both the cause of the fire and the environmental assessment remain open, with the fire department's investigation described as continuing.
The response brought together Islip, East Islip and Bay Shore crews, which knocked down the two-floor fire in roughly an hour despite the added complication of a waterfront site.
