Gov. Kathy Hochul declared a state of emergency and said state agencies were responding to the fires around the Pine Barrens, a wooded area that is home to commuter towns east of New York City. She said homes, a chemical factory and an Amazon warehouse were at risk and more evacuations may be needed.

Suffolk County Police Commissioner Kevin Catalina said the "operating theory" is that a fire was started at about 9:30 a.m. ET Saturday when a resident used cardboard to start a fire to make s'mores,

Firefighters in New York continued to battle at least one brush fire in a wooded stretch of Long Island on Sunday.

The cause of the brush fires that ravished 400 acres on Long Island’s Pine Barrens have been ruled accidental.

The wildfires began accidentally when someone in Suffolk County tried to light a fire to make s’mores, officials said. They were fully contained by Monday.

The massive brush fire that impacted the East End of Long Island​ is no longer burning in Westhampton, but Forest Rangers worked all day on Sunday to contain the perimeter.

Following brush fires in Long Island, Gov. Kathy Hochul issued a burn ban until March 16, when New York’s annual statewide burn ban takes effect.

Stemming the Southern pine beetle onslaught is one way to limit the amount of dead trees that lead to new growth and more fire risk, Romaine said.

Arson could be the cause of several wind-driven brush fires that burned on New York’s Long Island over the weekend, injuring two firefighters and sending large smoke plumes into the air, officials said.

Fires are tied to the history of the pine barrens, now at 105,000 acres, down from what experts believe at one time was a quarter of a million acres.

Investigators have determined that the brush fires that burned more than 400 acres of Long Island’s Pine Barrens over the weekend were caused by a family’s backyard bonfire while making s’mores. Fire officials say early emergency response helped contain the flames before they spread further.

A New York resident making s'mores in their backyard is suspected of accidentally igniting a series of wildfires over the weekend that swept through hundreds of acres of the Pine