Seaside Heights boardwalk fire rages at site of Sandy recovery

A massive fire spitting fist-sized embers engulfed dozens of businesses along an iconic Jersey shore boardwalk Thursday, as workers racing to contain the blaze's advance ripped up stretches of walkway only recently replaced in the wake of Superstorm Sandy.

That last-ditch effort to save the heart of the town's tourism business — and its very economic survival — appeared to have worked. Two hours after public works crews ripped out a eight metre swath of boardwalk that had been hurriedly rebuilt for a visit to Seaside Heights by Prince Harry in May, the flames had not advanced past the break.
Heavy equipment filled the breach with tall walls of sand to form makeshift dunes holding back not waves but fire.

"So far, so good," said Robert Matthies, the mayor of neighboring Seaside Park, where the blaze began around 2:30 p.m.

The blaze remained out of control as of 8:30 p.m. but firefighters reported some progress in containing it.

The 6-alarm blaze began in a frozen custard stand on the Seaside Park portion of the boardwalk and fanned by 25-30 km/h winds from an approaching storm system, quickly spread north into Seaside Heights, the boardwalk town where the MTV series Jersey Shore was filmed — and where the October storm famously plunged a roller coast into the ocean.

Businesses all destroyed
No serious injuries were reported, but the blaze destroyed all 32 businesses on

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