UPDATE: 17 People Escaped Fire on Main Street Westhampton Beach Friday Morning

At least 17 people were left homeless after an early morning fire swept through a group of apartments on the second and third floors of a historic building on Main Street in Westhampton Beach on October 25.

According to the Westhampton Beach Fire Department, the fire was reported at 5:20 a.m. on Friday morning. By the time firefighters arrived, they found the building heavily engulfed in flames, but all of the residents of at least four apartments that were on the upper floors of the building had evacuated and had suffered no injuries.

The residents were described by a neighbor as a number of families, including several young children.

Firefighters from Center Moriches, Quogue, Eastport, East Quogue, Riverhead, Hampton Bays and Southampton all sent equipment or personnel to Westhampton Beach to assist in fighting the fire or to cover for the department in case another call came in.

With the memory of the 2016 fire that swept through several buildings in downtown Sag Harbor, a Westhampton Beach department spokesperson said the fire was thankfully contained to just one structure.

“The fire proved difficult to extinguish with a number of flare-ups occurring after it was apparently put out,” the fire department spokesperson, John Neely, said. “The firefighters were able, however, to confine the fire to the one building with the adjacent structures being left unscathed.”

Firefighters covered merchandise in the first floor shops to protect them from water as much as possible, Neely said, but all three of the stores suffered extensive water damage.

“The fire department responded very quickly and everyone was evacuated safely,” Westhampton Beach Village Mayor Ralph Urban said. “There were no injuries. The building is a total loss though, but it did not spread.”

The fire broke out in the building that is home to TOLA, a clothing boutique, which also has several second-floor apartments.

Nancy St. John, who lives nearby, said she was awoken just before 5 a.m. by the sound of a fire alarm going off in the distance and a crackling sound that she originally thought was someone walking up her driveway. “I went to the window and saw the back of the building blazing,” she said.

She said that several families were outside behind the building, apparently having escaped the fire by climbing out second floor windows, she was told by firefighters.

“The back deck burned, which was the main way in and out,” she said.

“It’s an ancient building, which is too bad,” St. John, who grew up in Quogue and has lived in Westhampton Beach for more than 20 years, added. “When you look at photos from the hurricane [in 1938] you can see it was there then.”

The Red Cross said that its Long Island Disaster Action Team had responded to Westhampton Beach and provided assistance in the form of clothing, comfort kits, personal care items and snacks to as many as 21 people left homeless by the fire — as well as dozens of others put out by a spate of fires across the region in the last two weeks.

The cause of the fire is being investigated by the Southampton Town fire marshal.