(PHOTO: Rye Marshlands fire on Monday, April 17, 2017.)
MyRye.com has received comments from David H Larr, Chief of Department of the City of Rye Fire Department after Rye FD and cooperating agencies and departments completed a nearly nine hour fire fight in the Rye Marshlands park.
Larr told MyRye.com overnight: "I did try [to contact you] several times during our 8 hours 45 minutes long operation, but I was incident commander for the entire operation. I am now just sitting down. I will be happy to answer your questions if it isn't old news already. We had a very complex and labor intensive operation which included multiple agencies and resources. You saw the helicopter from Westchester County Police performing strategic water drops, but we also had County Police and County Police ESU Special Operations on the ground with a Lieutenant as part of my command center. I had FDNY providing a fire boat due to my department not having a fire boat in service. I had both Rye Police and County Police providing Police Boats. I had manpower from Harrison Fire Department to compliment my Firefighters fighting the dense fire from the ground in a location that was not accessible by my Fire Engines. All the firefighters did an amazing job making use of all our equipment and resources in a truly professional way to gain the upper hand and contain the fire despite the winds and knocking it out."
