Manorhaven Paddle Board Business-Owner 'Shocked' Hut Set Ablaze

PORT WASHINGTON, NY — The owner of a paddle board business said he was "shocked" to hear a hut belonging to his company burned to the ground earlier this month in Port Washington.

J.M. Kostallas told Patch he was asleep the morning of Aug. 17 and awoke to the sound of his phone buzzing. Half-asleep — it was 5:30 a.m. — he let it go to voicemail. He got another call, though and decided to listen to the voicemail. It was someone from the town and fire department. A hut belonging to his company Kostal Paddle had been set on fire overnight.

The blaze began shortly before 5 a.m. that morning in Manorhaven Beach Park, fire officials said. The Port Washington Fire Department extinguished the fire and the Nassau County Police arson and bomb teams were investigating. No injuries were reported, but the blaze was deemed suspicious.

Kostallas, who lives out of town, arrived at the structure's charred remains around 8 a.m. that morning. His employees helped build the hut last year. It had been completely destroyed.

"I was just shocked that someone would do something like that," he said.

When asked if he had any inkling as to who was responsible, Kostallas said no.

"Absolutely not. We have no idea," he said.

The hut was built so his workers didn't have to set up shop under a tent. After seeing their hard work gutted by flames, Kostallas said they were angry.

Luckily, none of the company's equipment was damaged.

"They tried to break into our container and then lit our hut on fire," Kostallas of the perpetrators. "All of our equipment was in the container."

While he hasn't calculate the cost to rebuild, Kostallas estimated it could cost a few thousand dollars. He's talking with his insurance company about how best to proceed. With the season ending Labor Day weekend, he plans to hold off on building a new hut. When it does happen, Kostallas said neighbors have offered to help.

"There's a lot of people in the community who want to help out, so we'll probably do that in May or something like that," he said.