Officials: Westhampton Beach fire leaves 20 people, including 3 children, displaced
There were no reported injuries.
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Twenty people, including three children, were displaced following a fire early Friday in Westhampton Beach, fire officials say.
They say the fire broke out at 5:20 a.m. at a building on Main Street. The building has apartments on the second and third floors, as well as three stores on the first floor.
All 20 people living in the upper two levels of the building, including three children, got out safely by the time first responders arrived.
Robin Goldfarb said she knew it was serious when she looked out her window.
"I saw lights flashing throughout my whole apartment. So, I woke up and looked out the window that faces east and that's when I saw the smoke, the flames,” she said. "There were pretty tall flames just shooting out of the roof, but there was so much smoke."
Many people passing by the building, like Johnny Kelly of Quogue, were in disbelief of what happened.
"I've never seen anything like that. I did a double take when I first walked by today," he said.
The bottom floor of the building housed three small businesses. Alison Buck owns one of the businesses, a boutique called Tola. She said they had just put out their holiday merchandise before the fire.
"I will hopefully survive this,” she said. "It's a lot of sadness, but we've survived a lot as small business owners in the last recent years, so I trust that I can survive this."
One of the stores impacted by the fire, NIBI MTK, posted on its Instagram that it will be closed indefinitely.
Over 10 East End departments helped put out the blaze Friday morning.
The cause of the fire is under investigation.
The Red Cross stepped in and provided all the displaced families with emergency assistance.
