Small Fire Under a Furnace in East Hampton House Puts Itself Out, Causes Smoke

A pan caught fire under a malfunctioning furnace in a house on Joshua's Hole Road in East Hampton on Friday afternoon, filling the house with smoke.

Chief Ray Harden said the call initiated as a chief's investigation for an automatic fire alarm for reported smoke at about 4 p.m. He said a heating technician had been at the house and left to get a part.

A pan near the furnace's fan appeared to have caught fire, creating the smoke throughout the entire house, according to Harden. The fire extinguished on its own. 

No one was home at the time, Harden said.

A fire department lieutenant was first at the house, just off Old Northwest Road, with Harden arriving shortly thereafter. He said he thought it was a "puff back," and called for one engine to respond.

"The smoke wasn't moving," Harden said. "That's when I called for the rest of the trucks to come on down. I thought something else might have been going on."

Three engines, a water truck, and the heavy rescue truck, which has fans on board to ventilate a house, responded. While a hose line was set up from Old Northwest Road to Joshua's Hole Road, the equipment wasn't used. Trucks standing by on one of the main thoroughfares to Northwest Woods slowed traffic for about an hour.

A correction has been made to an earlier version of this story. Chief Ray Harden clarified that the pan was not left under the furnace, that it is actually part of the equipment and that the heating technician had not started working on the furnace when he left for a part just before the fire, as had been previously stated.