WILLIAMSBURG — A fire that broke out early Tuesday morning destroyed a decades-old family grocery store and damaged apartments above the shop, officials and neighbors said.
The blaze, which erupted in the Villa Tapia Grocery Corp at 6:51 a.m., took more than one hour to calm, said FDNY officials, who arrived on the scene at 367 S. 4th St. within a few minutes of the outbreak. The cause is still under investigation, FDNY said.
No injuries were reported and witnesses said the grocery was closed at the time of the incident, but upstairs residents and next-door neighbors were all evacuated from their homes and the first-floor shop appeared "decimated," neighbors said.
A resident who lives across the street from the store said the disturbing early-morning scene jolted her from her slumber just before 7 a.m.