Watch & listen live: Major fire along boardwalk area at Seaside Park, NJ. Water supply problems. Fire has spread to more than a dozen buildings.
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(Thanks to Merritt Hewitt for the early alert on this fire.)
Above, when available, live helicopter video of the fire along the boardwalk in Seaside Park, New Jersey. It’s a community that was hard hit by Hurricane Sandy.
Below are multiple videos posted to the Facebook page of Jersey Shore Hurricane News of the earlier stages of this operation. The videos are in order from top to bottom with the first one recorded at 2:42 PM and the last at 3:46 PM.
Coverage from The Star-Ledger at NJ.com:
A massive fire started about 2:15 p.m. todayat the historic Kohr’s Ice Cream shop near the boardwalk and quickly raged out of control. The blaze wasn’t far from where Hurricane Sandy devastated the Seaside Heights boardwalk last fall. With evacuations ordered on the surrounding blocks, the blaze tore through roughly 20 buildings.
Here are the latest updates:
7:40 p.m.: FORCED TO FLEE — Business owner Timothy Hussey said he tried to put the initial fire out after he smelled smoke this afternoon, but was quickly overwhelmed by the now multi-alarm inferno and forced to flee for safety.
7:30 p.m. WHICH BUSINESSES AFFECTED? — Here is a preliminary list of businesses impacted by the fire. The list will be updated as more information is made available:
7:20 p.m. BUSINESS OWNERS WORRY: — Nearly 11 months ago, Angela VanArtsdalen watched her business get washed away by Hurricane Sandy. Tonight, she is worried she will watch it burn.
7:19 p.m.: WHERE DID THE FIRE START?— Christine Pallas, of Matawan, was taking photographs of Hurricane Sandy recovery efforts in Seaside Park when she became witness to the start of one of the largest and most devastating New Jersey fires in recent memory. he noticed a fire had started on the boardwalk, which quickly spread to nearby Kohr’s.
7:12 p.m. HELP ON THE WAY — Monmouth County has dispatched a task force and large diameter hose pipeline to the scene, according to Fire Marshal Hank Striker
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is on the scene of the fire by Thursday evening. He said about 400 firefighters from across the state were still battling the blaze.
He also said some 20 businesses have been destroyed. However, the said the fire was largely contained to the boardwalk. Some embers caused damage to a nearby condo complex, but the damage was minor.
The governor says his first thought in seeing the damage to an area that struggled to rebuild after Superstorm Sandy was: “I feel like I want to throw up.”
The fire reportedly started at the Kohr Brothers at 1800 Boardwalk on the FunTown Amusement Pier around 2:15 p.m. It quickly reached five alarms before jumping to six shortly before 4 p.m.
As of 3:20 p.m., explosions had been reported within the building and multiple units were being called in to the scene. A large plume of black smoke was visible in the sky over much of the boardwalk looking north towards the pier.Crews said they were having problems getting adequate water and with flying embers spreading the fire due to winds in the area. Some embers had blown as many as four blocks away.
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