A Bridgehampton family of four is reeling from the loss of their house -- and nearly everything they owned -- after it sustained heavy damage in a fire on Saturday night.
"The only thing keeping us going is no one was hurt. You have sentimental things, but a life saved is a lot of better than all those things," said Didier Irabizi, who had lived at 668 Bridgehampton-Sag Harbor Turnpike since 2010 with his parents and brother.
He said his mother, Agnes Mujawayezu, who works in housekeeping at Stony Brook Southampton Hospital, arrived home after her shift and smelled smoke in the house, and after realizing it was coming from one of the bedrooms, "she tried to get whatever she could get and ran outside."
Firefighters were dispatched at 9:43 p.m., but when they arrived, according to Bridgehampton Fire Department Chief Nick Hemby, the house was already fully engulfed in flames.
A neighboring house had to be evacuated as about 80 firefighters from Bridgehampton, Southampton, and Sag Harbor worked to put out the fire, Chief Hemby said. Medics from the Sag Harbor Volunteer Ambulance Corps and the East Hampton Ambulance Association also responded to the call for help.
The blaze was under control within 30 to 45 minutes, but the house had already "sustained substantial fire damage," Chief Hemby said in an email on Monday.
Originally built by Habitat for Humanity, the family has owned the house since 2018. Mr. Irabizi described it as a two-story, four-bedroom house with a partially finished second floor. The fire is thought to have started in one of the first-floor bedrooms. The Southampton Town fire marshal is still investigating its origin.
The family is originally from Rwanda, having moved first to Texas in 2004 before settling on Long Island's South Fork in 2005. Mr. Irabizi is a junior salesman at the store Monc XIII in Sag Harbor. His brother, Thierry Balihuta, is director of operations at the Sag Harbor Cinema, and their father, Faustin N'sabumukunzi, is self-employed in landscaping. They are grateful for the support of their community and co-workers, Mr. Irabizi said.
"We're pretty much scrambling to get things done, day by day," he said. "It's really rough right now. . . . Hopefully down the road, everything will be better."
They are temporarily staying at the Southampton Inn while they search for a new place to live.
A GoFundMe fund-raising effort, online at gofund.me/e967b692, was set up Monday to benefit Ms. Mujawayezu, who "pours her heart into her work for our community," a co-worker wrote. A second GoFundMe page was established a day later for the rest of her family; it can be accessed at gofund.me/ade32c8f.
This story has been updated since it was first published online.
