Fire Island is a 34 mile long barrier island approximately 7 miles south of Long Island across the Great South Bay. The island extends from Jones Beach Inlet in the west to Moriches Inlet in the east.

 

The origin of the name is unclear. The island may have been named after Fire Island Inlet, which first appeared on a deed in 1789, and the inlet’s name may have started as a simple spelling error. The number of inlet islands has varied over time, and it is likely that “five” or the Dutch word “vier,” meaning four, was misspelled on early maps as “fire.”

Fire Island Beach appeared on charts in the 1850s, and folklore suggests the name arose from land-based pirates, or “wreckers,” who built beach fires at night to lure cargo ships onto shore.
Some say poison ivy gave Fire Island its name, either for its red leaves in autumn or its fiery itch.

In 1653, Isaac Stratford of Babylon set up a shore whaling station on the Island (the name, Whalehouse Point, still persists).

In 1825 the Federal government constructed a lighthouse at the extreme western tip of Fire Island.

Most of the communities on the island where established in the early part of the 20th century. Some started out as vacation resorts, others as religious communities.

The early 1960s was a period of great anxiety among Fire Island residents. State Parks Commissioner Robert Moses appeared on the verge of winning approval of his long dream of paving a parkway from one end of the island to the other.

 

Moses' plans were derailed but the threat of the same scheme reappearing at some future date prompted members of the fire island communities to band together to support the creation of the Fire Island National Seashore (www.nps.gov), encompassing all the territory from the the Robert Moses State Park in the west to those of the Suffolk county's Smith Point Park in the east.

 

Within the Fire Island National Seashore are 17 communities each with a unique appeal. These communities are from east to west:
Watch Hill (National Seashore Headquarters)
Davis Park/Ocean Ridge
Water Island
Fire Island Pines
Cherry Grove
Point O'Woods
Ocean Bay Park
Seaview
Ocean Beach
Corneille Estates
Robbins Rest
Atlantique
Lonelyville
Dunewood
Fair Harbor
Saltaire
Kismet

While Fire Island is connected to Long Island by the Robert Moses Causeway to Jones beach, in general these communities can only be reached by ferry service from either Bayshore, or Patchogue NY