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Welcome to Fire Island ...

Fire Island is located in Suffolk County<1>.

While we don't have a date for the founding of Fire Island, you might consider that their post office opened in 1857.

A typical abbreviation for Fire Island: Fire Is. (in Canada, 'Isld.' is the more common abbreviation.)

Fire Island is near sea level<2>.

Time Zone: Fire Island lies in the Eastern Time Zone (EST/EDT) and observes daylight saving time

Area Codes for Fire Island: 631 & 934<3>

Communities near Fire Island ...

We have created a list of 10 communities that are near Fire Island.

  • Lindenhurst
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the west)
  • Massapequa Park
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the west)
  • Mastic Beach
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northeast)
  • Patchogue
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northeast)
  • Babylon
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the west)
  • Lake Grove
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the north)
  • Amityville
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the west)
  • Farmingdale
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the west)
  • Islandia
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the north)
  • Brightwaters
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northwest)

To Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

We have a couple of sections for those tracing their genealogy.

We created a list of cemeteries that are in the area around Fire Island. Our list includes the location of those cemeteries and we provide an overhead view. See our Cemetery List for Fire Island.

Using the information from an 1895 Atlas, we've created a list of communities that were in the area of Fire Island. Our list includes information such as whether the 1895 community had a post office or railroad service. See our List of 1890's Communities around Fire Island.

We also have a detailed list of newspapers that have been published in the area around Fire Island. See our Newspapers Page for Fire Island.

TripAdvisor Tourism Pages for Fire Island ...

Looking for more information about Fire Island? A wonderful source is the TripAdvisor website. We always start with the TripAdvisor Tourism page, where you can read an overview with links that will help you find lodging, restaurants and attractions.

In addition to the Tourism page for Fire Island, there are neighboring communities that also have Tourism pages. More information about those communities can be found on our TripAdvisor Page for Fire Island.

Adding Fire Island to Our Gazetteer ...

We originally found mention of Fire Island in both the FIPS-55 and the GNIS. For more information, see the FIPS and GNIS Codes sections on our Miscellaneous Page.

From our notes, the earliest published mention we've found (so far) for Fire Island was in the document titled List of Post Offices from Cameron Blevins and Richard Helbock.<5>

From that list, the Fire Island post office opened in 1857. The Fire Island post office closed in 1901.

For more details, see References and Mentions for Fire Island.

Footnotes ...

<1>If you're interested in how the shape of New York's counties, including Suffolk, have changed over time, we recommend the Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.
<2>The elevation is an estimate for the area around Fire Island - it will be higher in some places and lower in others.
<3>When there's a risk of an area code running out of phone numbers, an 'Overlay Area Code' is created that has the same geographic boundaries as the existing area code. In this case, the 631 code has been Overlayed with the 934 area code. New phone numbers in the Fire Island area will be assigned with one of these codes: 631 or 934. As a result, placing a call in the Fire Island area will require 10-digit dialing (where you enter both the area code and then the phone number).
<4>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<5>A copy of the Blevins & Helbock Post Office list with background information can be found at:

      https://cblevins.github.io/us-post-offices/data-biography/