Inferno at the Shore

    Just 11 months after Hurricane Sandy hit the East Coast, another tragedy strikes in the form of a fire. At 2:50 p.m. on September 12th, a fire started in Kohr's frozen custard shop in Seaside Park, which then spread to Seaside Heights. It spread north due to 30-35 mph winds blowing embers.

    Funtown Pier collapsed due to the fire, home to the iconic rollercoaster that fell into the ocean during Hurricane Sandy. Sawmill pizza was the northern-most building burned, Midway steaks and sausages the southern-most. Bulldozers were sent out to rip apart a "trench" in the boardwalk to try and contain the fire. More than 50 buildings were wrecked, including 32 in Seaside Park and 20 in Seaside Heights.

    Three police officers were injured when they fell from an emergency vehicle. Two have head injuries, but none are considered to be life-threatening.

    The fire-fighters still have an investigation going on the cause of the fire, but some citizens are suspicious. The owner of the Kohr's custard shop, where the fire started, managed to get away with nothing but the money box. Some citizens speculate on just how "lucky" that was. Do you think the owner would have purposefully set fire to his own shop?

See the full story here-----> http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57602783/jersey-shore-fire-destroys-boardwalk-landmarks/

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  • Be sure to comment a bit more to student comments.

  • While this is sad that two tragedies happened back to back I don't think fingers need to be pointed. Yes it does look suspicious, but what would he have to gain from doing that. When more information surfaces I believe there will be a different solution as to why the fire started. My guess is that an oven was left on or something.

    • It was an ice cream shop.

  • I doubt he did it on purpose because he might have collected a lot of insurance because of last year's hurricane already. But i think it was probably just a fire not caused by the owner, that did happen to be tragic.

  • That does sound a bit suspicious. I can see why people would think that, but if they wanted just the money, they could have sold the building. I think it was just an accident. It's sad to think that it was so soon after a major natural disaster. 

  • I could see the shop owner doing it on purpose to collect insurance money. If he did there is a lot of troble coming his way.

  • I surely hope the store owner didn't do this on purpose, but with the way people think these days it wouldn't surprise me. I think it's sad if he did do it on purpose because that area doesn't need any more devastation.

    • Everything that survived Hurricane Sandy was then destroyed by this fire. It is devastating, especially to those who lived out there for so long and visited it for their lifetime. Many people are speculating on how the fire started, but the officials think it was just an electrical fire.

  • Although that does sound suspicious I highly doubt the owner would do this. I think in the whole panic of a fire the only thing he saw that was valuable to grab was the money box. This week when we had the fire scare I only grabbed my phone so I can relate to this owner.

    • I agree with you Maggie. I doubt that he would purposely set his own shop on fire. When he grabbed the money box, I bet that it was out of panic. He probably wanted to get out of the shop as quickly as possible, and he grabbed the money box because it was of value to him. 

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