At least eight homes and a lumberyard were destroyed, and officials said three other houses also might have been lost. The Westhampton Long Island Rail Road station also was damaged, officials said.
Despite the intensity of the fast-moving fire, no residents were injured. At least 40 firefighters suffered minor injuries; one was seriously hurt and taken by helicopter to a hospital.
The inferno sent about 400 residents of the fire zone to two evacuation shelters, where they huddled with neighbors against the kind of fiery show more often seen in the West.
"We've always heard about national disasters somewhere else," said Bill Rash, who was forced from his home late Thursday. "Now we're in one."
"It's like being in hell," said volunteer firefighter L.J. Heming, 33, of Middle Island. "We were right there in the woods, and a wall of fire went right over us. We pumped every ounce of water that we had. . . . Everyone was screaming on the radio for water, water!"
As the firefighters fought many small offshoots of the main fire, New York Gov. George E. Pataki announced that the state would cede its authority over fighting the fire to the federal government, which sent in its first four firefighting teams last night.
"The progress that has been made in the past 24 hours has been absolutely enormous. It's totally different than it was last night, and even at noon today," Pataki said, after flying over the area at about 6:30 p.m. yesterday.
But Pataki stopped short of calling the fire contained, and other sources said officials were concerned that two smaller fires - at Manorville and Calverton to the north - could flare up.
"You've just got to hope that the wind doesn't pick up," Pataki said.
