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A devastating blaze in Fire Island Pines that took hundreds of firefighters nearly a day to bring under control destroyed most of the resort's summer businesses.

Personnel from 28 local volunteer fire departments are working to put out fires in a Fire Island community more than 14 hours after the blazes were first reported.

Hurricane Earl has been downgraded to a Category 1 storm. Beaches around here were closed today, boats pulled out of the water in anticipation of the storm. But Earl has not kept New Yorkers from heading to the shores of Long Island, hoping to get in a few days of R&R this Labor Day weekend.

And among those vacationers are a number of members of the WNYC staff -- including our morning hosts Soterios Johnson, who is on holiday in East Hampton, and Richard Hake, out on Fire Island.