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Read the press release here.

How You Can Help the Hardware Store Destroyed by a Fire in Prospect Heights

 A fire at a hardware store at 265 Flatbush Ave. in Brooklyn killed a 46-year-old man and destroyed the longtime shop.
Fire at 265 Flatbush Ave.
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PROSPECT HEIGHTS — Before it burned down last month, Flatbush Hardware at Flatbush and St. Marks avenues was part of “the bones” of Prospect Heights, residents said  one of those spots where the owners knew your name and went the extra mile to help out.

Longtime St. Marks Avenue resident Kim Brandon said the shop was where she went “in an emergency,” knowing Chris and Desmond Nation, the brothers who owned it, would be there. Brandon’s neighbor Jezra Kaye remembers a night before Christmas this year when Chris came to fix her front door past 9 p.m., unprompted.

Now, Brandon, Kaye and a handful of neighbors on the block are looking to support the Nations after an early-morning fire destroyed the hardware store on Jan. 21, gutting the shop and destroying its inventory.

“They’re in limbo because they’ve lost their livelihood  they’ve lost their business,” Kaye said.

With the Nations’ permission, Kaye and Brandon set up a GoFundMe online fundraiser for the family, asking neighbors to donate.

“They didn’t ask us for the money,” Brandon said. “I do know they are hurting financially. Everything they’ve owned has been burned to a crisp.”

In the four days since the fund began, more than $6,000 has been raised for the hardware shop owners, with a $15,000 goal. But the effort isn’t all about dollars and cents, the pair said.

“More important than what they’re doing with the money is [for them] to know that all those people they cut keys for in the last 40 years — we’re all standing behind them,” Brandon said. “This is our way of showing them how much they’ve meant to us.”

“It’s about this incredible goodwill that this family has built over decades,” Kaye added.

The fire that destroyed Flatbush Hardware also ruined the family home of Bassam Awad, the owner of the neighboring Haifa Market, who died in the blaze. Friends of the Awads have raised more than $50,000 for the family in a separate online fundraising campaign set up the day of the tragedy.

To donate to the Nation family, visit the GoFundMe page set up for the hardware shop.