Riverhead Fire Department and volunteers from three other area departments are battling a large brush fire in the L.I. State Pine Barrens Preserve in the northeastern section of the Manorville Fire District, near Calverton.

Several brush trucks are in the woodlands working to put out the fire, according to radio reports, is burning about 10 acres of land south of Route 24 and east of the Long Island Expressway.

Riverhead firefighters responded at about 5 p.m. to a report of a brush fire in the vicinity of the Calverton shooting range and the Calverton Hills community of Route 24 near exit 71 of the Long Island Expressway.

Manorville Fire Department responded at around the same time to a call of a brush fire in the vicinity of Halsey Manor Road/Connecticut Avenue.
A Suffolk County Police helicopter responded to assist firefighters on the ground locate the fire.

Wading River Fire Department and Flanders Fire Department were called for mutual aid and sent brush trucks to the scene.

The smell of smoke and even a light haze overspread portions of central Riverhead Town, prompting other calls to the fire department of smoke in the area this afternoon.