The Fire Bug Who Torched East Moriches
Back in 1970, residents were awakened by the East Moriches fire siren blaring. The department couldn’t turn it off because the firehouse was in flames. The blaze was intentional, set by an arsonist.
Living on Main Street, the firebug started out small, lighting sheds and barns behind his neighbor’s homes. Then he got more brazen by burning buildings.
“He started the principal’s house on fire, and they came and put it out,” fireman Gary Mazarakis remembered. “He then tried to burn down the school, and they put that out. I guess he was fed up with the fire department since he lit up the firehouse.”
The bug soaked a stack of hoses with gas to start the blaze, severely damaging the firehouse and putting the company’s four trucks out of commission. Gary’s dad, Alex Mazarakis, broke a window to get in and save one of the trucks. “He burned his hands on the chain that lifted the door and had to kick out the windshield to get in because of the flames.” He made numerous trips to Kalers Pond to pick up water to fight the fire.
More than two dozen departments from adjoining areas helped fight the fire, which burned until the wee hours of the morning, when the siren finally went silent. Some of them lent East Moriches trucks and equipment until they could reorganize. Damage to the 23-year-old building was assessed at the time to be more than $200,000, with the complete loss of one truck. The burned-out building was replaced in 1974.
Investigators realized the arsonist struck in a pattern, setting the fires during full moons after midnight. Suffolk Police Officer John Heather had a hunch who it was and staked out his house, but could not catch him in the act. He was finally fingered for the fires from mud matched from a burning property to his shoes. He spent time in jail and a mental institution and died in Manorville after getting hit by a bus.