Riverhead Supervisor Tim Hubbard today signed an executive order declaring a state of emergency in the City of Riverhead due to existing and expected fire weather that is contributing to the rapid spread of wildfires.

The supervisor ordered that all recreational fires and burning activities are prohibited. These include open burns, bonfires, beach fires and the use of fire pits. The ban will continue until it expires or until any extension of the order expires.

The supervisor also ordered that “City personnel shall coordinate and utilize other municipal agencies and subdivisions as necessary, including volunteer fire departments and ambulance services, to protect the health, safety and welfare of the public.”

A red flag warning is in effect again on Saturday16 November from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. A red flag warning is issued when critical fire weather conditions exist, including dry fuels, low relative humidity and high winds. Northwest winds 10 to 20 mph with gusts up to 30 mph and relative humidity as low as 25% are expected Saturday.

New York state has banned outdoor fires through November 30.

Saturday’s red flag warning is the eighth issued for the Long Island region since Oct. 25.

Increasing the risk of fire spreading is the long period of unusually dry weather in the region. Since Sept. 1, less than an inch of rain has fallen in eastern Suffolk, according to data recorded at the National Weather Service in Upton. Normal rainfall during that period is close to 10 inches (9.97 inches), according to weather service data.

The exceptionally dry period coincides with the arrival of autumn, when dry fallen leaves cover the ground and create a bed of what firefighters call “dry fuels” in the forest.

Several brush fires have broken out in Riverhead in the past 10 days, starting with a small fire in a bamboo thicket off Harrison Avenue a week ago that is believed to have been started by a campfire there.

Saturday morning just after midnight, a large brush fire ignited on a wooded bluff in Baiting Hollow on the east side of Friar’s Head Golf Course. Eighteen fire departments responded with 125 people and numerous brush trucks, tankers and engines to battle the wind-driven blaze throughout the night into mid-morning. The fire burned about 20 hectares of forest. One firefighter was taken to hospital for treatment of smoke inhalation.

MORE COVERAGE: Firefighters from 18 departments are battling a large brush fire on LI Sound in Baiting Hollow

The bluff fire flared up again Saturday night, requiring firefighters from Riverhead and nearby districts to return to the scene to extinguish the flames.

MORE COVERAGE: Firefighters are back on the scene of an earlier brush fire in Baiting Hollow this evening, knocking down the blaze

Sunday brought more fires, this time in the woods south of Pulaski Street, north of the railroad tracks, in the area of ​​a homeless camp. While Riverhead firefighters were battling that blaze, a second call came in for a brush fire at the Calverton shooting range off Nugent Drive.

MORE COVERAGE: More brush fires burn in Riverhead Sunday

On Tuesday afternoon, Riverhead firefighters were called back to the woods south of Pulaski Street to plug hot spots at the scene of Sunday’s fire, which started to flare due to windy conditions.