News Story- Seaside Boardwalk Fire- Olivia Mohnacs

http://www.newsworks.org/index.php/homepage-feature/item/59742-water-fire-pummel-hard-hit-jersey-shore-towns&Itemid=248&linktype=hp_impact

     On Thursday, September 12th Seaside and Seaside Heights both experienced another blow to their towns. 10 months before, when Hurricane Sandy hit, a lot of the town was destroyed. It took months to rebuild and start businesses up again, including the boardwalk which had the largest destruction. With businesses just opening back up the first day of June, they relied heavily on business in the summer to get by. Funtown Arcade was down 2/3 of their sales and had a successful summer but was just getting by. Little did anyone know that there would me another monstrosity.
   An fire broke out on the boardwalk near a custard stand on Thursday morning, and destroyed over 3/4 of the boardwalk. Individual businesses, bars, stands, and over 50 businesses were damaged or destroyed in the midst of this. 95% of the fire was contained by this morning, but there are still some smoldering hot spots that can take days to extinguish. In the heat of the moment, desperate for water fire fighters used not only the town supply of water but ran hoses near Barnegat Bay to get 5-6,000 gallons of water per minute. Motels and restaurants were burned to the ground and one bar that was still not re-opened from Sandy but was in the process of renovation, was engulfed in flames on Thursday.
  Fire fighters survived minor injuries and three police officers were thrown from an emergency vehicle resulting in injuries. There were no deaths recorded, just minor injuries. But it could have been a ot worse. The northern part of the boardwalk was still being built and as the fire pushed north, they actually went and tore off the 25-foot swath of the boardwalk and saved the northern end. They replaced the spot with sand dunes to stop the spread of the fire and it worked.
  Estimated costs for the rebuilding of the boardwalk is close to 600,000 dollars without including the damages from private businesses. Governor Chris Christie says that all the hard work we went through to recreate the town will not go to waste and that the boardwalk will be constructed again. His plan is to use some of the relief fund of Hurricane Sandy but he gives other options if that is not approved.
 It seems like once New Jersey recovers and bounces back from one thing, another disaster hits us.