Harvest Diner devastated by fire

The Harvest Diner on Old Country Road is in devastating condition after fire raged through the building on Sept. 26, according to officials.

The Nassau County Police Department was notified at 4:51 a.m. of the blaze, which ravaged the popular dining spot on the border of Salisbury and Westbury. Third Precinct police officers arrived to see the building “fully engulfed in flames.”

The Westbury Fire Department worked to distinguish the fire with the assistance of the Carle Place, Jericho, East Williston, Bethpage and the Plainview fire departments. There were at least 40 fire apparatus and 100 fire personnel on the scene. There were no injuries reported and the investigation is ongoing.

The morning of the fire, The Harvest Diner shared on its Facebook page a message to its frequent guests in reaction to what happened. In a showing of support, hundreds of Facebook users commented and shared the post with thoughts and memories of time spent at the diner.

The post read, “Dear friends of the Harvest Diner. Today is a very sad day for our family. As many of you know through Facebook and the news media outlets we have suffered a devastating fire. We are grateful that no one was hurt and we are eternally grateful to all the firefighters and companies who valiantly tried to save diner. For 40 years we have been serving the community of Westbury. We have watched your children and grandchildren grow up in our diner as you have watched our children and now our grandchildren. We are so grateful to all of you. It would be remiss of us not to acknowledge our amazing staff and their dedication. You are all part of our extended family. The next few weeks and months will be trying for our family. We ask you all to keep us in your prayers and we in turn will keep you in ours. We love you all and hope we can be together once again soon.”