HAMPTON BEACH, N.H.
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Three days after a fire leveled a block in Hampton, the owners of the businesses that were destroyed salvaged what they could.
More than 160 firefighters from three states battled the fire early Friday morning at the Surf Hotel on Ocean Boulevard. Five businesses were destroyed.
On Monday, the Mitchell family packed up anything they could salvage from Mrs. Mitchell's Country Shop, a business that sat on the corner of the block for 44 years.
"It was a strong family business that did really well, and we kept it traditional, and people always came back," said Lynn Mitchell.
Three generations of family members worked there, and they said they and their customers had special memories of the shop.
"We're just trying to pull out the bigger things that people related to," Mitchell said. "We started getting e-mails from customers around the country. 'How's Edgar the Troll?'"
The troll was singed in the fire, but the Mitchells said he would be fixed. A shark head that was also a well-known feature of the shop was untouched by the fire.
But much of the block was destroyed in the fire. Jason Antaya, of Haverhill, Mass., said his girlfriend worked each summer at the candy shop under the Surf Hotel.
"She was looking forward to working, and one day she had a job and the next day there was nothing," he said.
Fire officials said they are still investigating the cause, but because of the extent of the damage, they may never know what sparked the fire. But officials said heavy winds helped the fire spread quickly.
Resident Diann Barber has lived in the area for a decade and said she knows many of the business owners. She said everyone is vowing to rebuild.
"It's just horrifying," she said. "I hope to God they find out what caused it because this is just heartbreaking. It really is."
Fire officials said that while they were fighting the Ocean Boulevard fire, they had more than 75 other 911 calls to deal with, including two other structure fires and a woman who went into labor.
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