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More than a dozen residents displaced by Westhampton mixed-use complex fire
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More than a dozen residents displaced by Westhampton mixed-use complex fire

The American Red Cross responded to help victims of a fire that burned through apartments in a three-story building on Main Street in Westhampton Beach, officials said.

The Westhampton Beach Fire Department responded to a fire at the Main Street residential and commercial building at about 5:20 a.m., said John Neely, a volunteer member of the department’s fire police unit. The fire also drew members of the Center Moriches, Eastport, East Moriches, East Quogue, Flanders, Hampton Bays, Riverhead, Southampton and Quogue fire departments.

“It looked like almost the whole building was on fire when we got there,” Neely said. “It took about an hour to get the fire under control. It kept popping up in different places. It was kind of a difficult fire to put out.”

Neely said no injuries were reported during the incident, adding that all residents of apartments on the second and third floors of the structure self-evacuated. He estimated that more than a dozen residents were displaced.

“It’s not livable at all,” Neely said of the two stories of apartments.

The fire did not affect the structures on the main street on both sides of it, separated by narrow alleys.

“Crews made an excellent stop given the conditions they encountered,” Westhampton Beach Fire Department Chief Darryl Schunk said in a statement. “They certainly saved the adjacent buildings.”

The scene has been turned over to the Southampton Town Fire Department for investigation, Neely said. The Westhampton Beach Firehouse was used as a shelter for displaced residents, who were assisted by the Suffolk Office of Emergency Management and the American Red Cross.

A trio of clothing and accessories boutiques on the bottom floor of the building — Nibi MTK, Tola and Palmer and Purchase — suffered water damage as firefighters battled the blaze, Neely said.

“Firefighters covered a lot of the stock, they tried to save that, but they were pouring water on the top two floors,” Neely said. “You can imagine the amount of water flowing down.”

Nibi MTK “will be closed indefinitely,” the store announced on Instagram Friday morning in a post that included photos of the fire. In similar posts, under video footage of the scene from Friday morning, Tola announced it would “be closed for the foreseeable future,” and Palmer and Purchase said “we’ll be back.”