Fire Island
the most W. end of a strip of the Great South Beach, Suffolk co., N. Y., 40 miles long, averaging onehalf mile W., off Long Island, between Great South Bay andie Atlantic Ocean.
It is reached by ferry from Babylon. The beach took its name from the fires built there as signals to vessels during the war with England, in 1812. Between the beach and the mainland, in Great South Bay, are five small islands. About 45 miles E. of the inlet to the bay Great South Beach joins the mainland. The entire strip is dotted with popular and well-known watering-places. To the east there is a lighthouse 185 feet high with a revolving light.