Arson Investigation Remains on Rye Marshlands Fire

The Rye Marshlands fire on Monday of this week was likely started by an individual. An arson investigation remains open to determine if the fire was started by accident or on purpose.

(PHOTO: Rye Marshlands Conservancy on fire Monday. Credit: Lorraine Ali)

David H. Larr, Chief of Department for the City of Rye Fire Department told MyRye.com "The Westchester County Police Arson Detective and his arson trained canine were called to the scene by Incident Command on April 17 at appropriately 4:30pm. After they completed their on scene investigation, the case remains open at this time, so there are little details that I can state publicly, except that it was most likely started by a person or persons and at this time the detective cannot or will not state if it was started accidentally."

Larr also told MyRye.com that fire fighters returned to the scene Tuesday to tamp down hot spots: "We returned on April 18 at appropriately 10:40am to assess the fire scene and found a few hot spots remaining around the trees we needed to cut down due to the fire. So our Rye Firefighters addressed them by cutting the downed trees into more manageable sections and rolled them out of the way to extinguish the smoldering brush underneath and around those trees. We completed operations about an hour later," said Larr.