OCEAN GROVE, NJ FIRE DESTROYS SEVERAL GROUND STORES AND 10 APARTMENTS. THE CAUSE AND ORIGIN INVESTIGATION IS ON GOING
February 6, 2015
OCEAN GROVE, NJ:
A fire on
Friday afternoon tore through a three-story building in Ocean Grove, N.J.,
destroying several ground-level stores and about 10 apartments in the heart of
the small, historic shore community, officials said.
The blaze,
which started at 50 Main Avenue about 3:30 p.m. and raged for several hours,
caused no major injuries, though one of the dozens of firefighters who
responded injured a leg, said Lt. Michael McGhee, a spokesman for the Police
Department in Neptune Township, which includes Ocean Grove. But the fire left
the building all but demolished, Mayor Mary Beth Jahn said.
The cause
of the fire was still under investigation late Friday. Officials believe it
started on one of the top two floors, which housed the apartments.
“It
is torched,” Lieutenant McGhee said of the wood-and-brick building, which was
fronted by trees on a quaint shopping-district street, set just two blocks from
the ocean. He and other officials said giant plumes of smoke billowed into the
air for hours, filling the sky and attracting about 100 residents who stood in
the freezing cold, making sure neighbors were safe and lamenting the damage to
their main street.
The
mayor said the third floor of the building had collapsed into the second floor,
and added that it appeared the entire structure would need to be razed. On
Friday evening, she said, some firefighters were still putting out pockets of
fire left in the smoking, charred building, but the initial blaze had been
contained. Lieutenant McGee said that firefighters from 12 Jersey Shore towns,
including all seven firehouses in Neptune Township, responded to the blaze.
“Ocean
Grove is a unique, old Shore community,” said Randy Bishop, a Neptune Township
committeeman, by phone, as he stood at a scene marked by “thick, thick smoke.”
“People
are talking about the fact that we will rebuild, we will come back, we will
continue to be Ocean Grove,” Mr. Bishop said.
The
central New Jersey hamlet, which is filled with Victorian homes, borders Asbury
Park and is less than 60 miles from Manhattan. It was founded in the late 1800s
as a religious retreat for Methodists, officials said.