Less than a year after Hurricane Sandy devastated the area Seaside Park, N.J., has been struck by another disaster; a six-alarm fire raged through the boardwalk destroying over 30 businesses and burning close to six blocks on Thursday, CNN reports.
"I feel like I want to throw up," Gov. Chris Christie said. "After all the effort and time and resources that we put in to help the folks in Seaside Park and Seaside Heights rebuild, to see this going on... is just unthinkable."
The fire burned for eight hours and required 35 engine companies consisting of 400 firefighters to contain it. Sadly, the fire burned the area of the boardwalk that had survived last year's hurricane, according to the New Jersey Star-Ledger.
"There's not much left," Brian Gabriel, Ocean County's fire coordinator told the Associated Press. "It looks like a couple of bombs went off. It's pretty much complete devastation."
As the ashes are still smoldering Seaside Park officials are already starting to plan how they will rebuild the boardwalk. Bob Martucci, the borough administrator, estimates that it will cost $600,000 to rebuild just the boardwalk; the businesses are privately owned so they will have to pay for their own rebuilding, according to the Associated Press.
"We just reopened June 1, went through the whole summer trying to stay open, and now this happens," Daniel Shauger, manager of Funtown Arcade, told the Associated Press. "We're wiped out again. It's just unimaginable."
The community had worked hard all winter to make sure the boardwalk was ready to open by summer and now they are going to have to go through that whole process for a second year in a row.
"It's hard on the community because the community was asked to sacrifice a lot," Seaside Heights Mayor Bill Akers told the Star-Ledger. "A lot of those that had been hurt before, not only do memories come back when you have these things, but now you're dealing with it all over again."
