Fire Destroys Seaside Heights Reconstruction

Chris Christie says he wants to throw up and you know that's saying a lot coming from him...


SEASIDE PARK, N.J. (CBSNewYork/AP) — It took almost nine hours, but firefighters finally got a massive fire that destroyed a good portion of the Seaside Park boardwalk under control late Thursday night.
The Ocean County Sheriff’s Department made the announcement at around 10:45 p.m.
“There are no better firefighters and police officers anywhere. Hurricanes and fires are no match at all! We salute all of our brothers and sisters,” Sherrif William T. Sommeling said.
Earlier, Gov. Chris Christie officially declared a state of emergency for Seaside Park as crews fought a gigantic fire that had been raging on boardwalk since early Thursday afternoon.
The fire started in the vicinity of the iconic Kohr’s Frozen Custard at 1800 Boardwalk at around 2:15 p.m., officials said. It quickly reached five alarms before jumping to a sixth shortly before 4 p.m.
Christie updated the situation from the boardwalk just after 7 p.m. on Thursday following a briefing by local officials.

“This is just unthinkable,” Gov. Christie said. ”The wind is the worst possible it could be.”

There were 400 firefighters from 35 engine companies and 15 ladder companies from Monmouth, Burlington, Atlantic and Cap May counties on the scene Thursday evening, the governor announced.
Christie said he was briefed on the massive fire before he left Trenton for the shore.
“I feel like I want to throw up,” said Christie. “After all the effort and time and resources that we’ve put in to help the folks of Seaside Park and Seaside Heights rebuild…it’s just unthinkable.”
Multiple witnesses who work in the shops surrounding the ice cream shop told CBS 2 that they heard a series of popping noises from under the boardwalk attached to the shops before the fire broke out.
Then they said they saw flames erupting from electrical wires under the boardwalk, starting a small fire that spread into the custard shop, which fueled what developed into an inferno.
Chrissy Hemenway said she was working at Kohr’s when the fire started.
“We were in the stand just doing our normal cleanup, end of the year getting the stand ready to close down and we smelled smoke,” Hemenway said. “Our manager came running in and told us to get out. We came around the corner and there was smoke coming up through the boardwalk.”
The fire spread to several neighboring buildings, and black smoke was billowing into the sky, 1010 WINS’ Eileen Lehpamer reported.