News Nearby: Firefighters Battle Water Mill Blaze

Here's some of the top headlines and newsmakers from this past week in nearby Patch towns. 

Southampton

Chief: Firefighters Faced Several Challenges Battling Water Mill Blaze

In difficult weather conditions, 70 firefighters worked for seven hours on Tuesday to completely extinguish a fire in a Water Mill house that started with a lightning strike on Tuesday.

North Fork

After a public outcry from an Orient farming family outraged over a proposed denial of their request to excavate on their Sound Avenue parcel, the Riverhead Town board decided to hold off on a decision.

"We're absolutely shocked by the Riverhead Town board," Orient resident Steve Mezynieski said Saturday.

Riverhead

Hearts were broken in Riverhead Tuesday as firefighter Thomas Jasinski lost his battle with lung cancer.

His family said Wednesday that a fundraiser planned for Sept. 21 at the Riverhead Elks Lodge will still go on as planned, to celebrate his life.

Westhampton-Hampton Bays

A dolphin that washed up in Hampton Bays on Thursday died of pneumonia.

According to the Riverhead Foundation, while initial findings from the necropsy on the female common dolphin indicate pneumonia killed it, the foundation is awaiting results of a test that will determine if the dolphin also had the morbillivirus.