ATF trucks on the scene. Seaview Ave. 1 pm. March 5, 2017. Photo by Tim Doody, special to Blogfinger ©
3/5/17. Email this am from citizen reporter Tim Doody:
A branch of federal law enforcement division – Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms – has set up
a multi-truck crime lab on Seaview Avenue. The text on one of the trucks reads “Explosives and Fire Investigation”
Blogfinger will look into this further. Stay tuned.
1:00 pm. Tim: Our block is filled with federal agents from as far away as New Orleans. Everything you need to know is written in the sides of vehicles and on their uniforms. There is a tractor trailer set up on the block. It is a mobile crime scene unit. News helicopters are overhead.
1:15 pm. From Blogfinger reporter Prosper Bellizia: When I went by the scene this morning I ran into ATF Agent Hermann and I asked him if the fire was suspicious. He answered, “We’ll find out in a few days.”
1:30 pm Blogfinger has received reliable information regarding the federal presence this morning. ATF (Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms) has a specialized squad which investigates possible arson. We have learned that there is a suspicion of a potential pattern/connection involving the large suspicious fires that have occurred in recent years in Ocean Grove.
Here is a link to our 3/3/17 article about the similar circumstances surrounding the 3 fires where hotels and condominiums have been involved, with all fires occurring in February or March, usually on Fridays or Saturday.
Our source says that there has been some speculation/discussion that there may be a serial arsonist, so that suspicion would explain the presence of ATF which performs criminal investigations.
The fire is suspicious. “Follow the money.” I have also noticed that these February and March fires from the past 7 years always break out when there are 15 – 30 MPH winds helping spread fire.
Ron Cole: I understand smoke causes dampening of light so what can be done to keep this situation from happening in the future? Maybe some new codes need to be added to prevent future happenings.
Devon: If you go back to prior years (before our review which looked at 2010-2017) there were fires in hotels and other structures. And there is a list of deaths including some children, many of whom died of smoke inhalation.
Here is a link to the APP review of fires and deaths in OG:
http://www.app.com/story/news/crime/jersey-mayhem/2017/03/03/massive-fires-part-ocean-groves-history/98681606/
If it was not for this very Blog, then we would continue to all be bamboozled, manipulated with lies, heartbroken over our losses, and frustrated by the continual disregard for this historic town’s set of rules and regulations.
I think by now our town’s residents are keen to understand that perpetual coincidence does not figure into this equation.
There are developers who have no care for our town, nor its residents, as they are primarily interested
in making lots of money.
Some have had fires to their properties. Nothing is far fetched and not everything can always be coincidental.
In regards to the Neptune Township government, OGCMA, HPC: They take care of each other, leaving its residents feeling hopeless, doubt, and deflated with worry of how our town will live in its future years.
Thank you Paul for bringing this all to light for those who actually will do something. I pray that the ‘mysteries’ are solved and justice is served. I would love to continue to live in the Grove and do not want to ever consider moving out.
I can’t wait until the day when all these old hotels are gone. They are a pox on this town and have been for many decades. I continue to be dumbfounded by the incompetence and potential malfeasance of successive leaders in OG and Neptune who do not work in the public interest to eliminate all these run down structures (in fact, they seem to really fight hard to keep these hazards).
I would add that even the functioning hotels have negative impact and — as we know from experience — they too will soon be run-down hulks blighting their blocks. One day there will be a fire that kills people. Maybe then our town leaders will begin to do the right thing. This town is supposed to be single family homes. Why is that so hard for our leaders to get?
In our beautiful town of Ocean Grove, one of few entire towns on the National Register of Historic Places and but 1 square mile and 3492 residents, I find it odd that the last 3 fires have involved hotels and condominiums whose owners were petitioning to change their use or tear them down have occurred late February or early March, usually on Fridays or Saturday.
Each of these fires destroyed several historic homes down with them. And now, per Blogfinger.net, a branch of federal law enforcement division – Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms – has set up a multi-truck crime lab on Seaview Avenue. The text on one of the trucks reads “Explosives and Fire Investigation”
Finally!!!
Excellent reporting by Blogfinger.net
May the investigation lead to the guilty party and may they have to rebuild the historic homes in full detail!
Gosh –
The sprinklers would only go off if there was enough heat under them to activate the individual head. They are designed to stop a small fire in an individual unit, say a cigarette butt in a garbage can. By the time temperature reached levels high enough to activate a head it’s likely the system was either under fire department control or there wasn’t enough water pressure to have the system work because of the trucks being hooked up to the hydrants outside.
I can’t speak to the emergency lighting system.
Chief Cole: I can’t thank you enough for this contribution to the truth on BLOGFINGER. We offer a lot of speculation here, because that is often all we have. You helped us also in 2015p>
We wish that more public officials would trust our readers to appreciate the truth.
Paul Goldfinger, Editor @Blogfinger
This a minor statement that is to help educate some people in what actually transpired on the day in question.
– The fire alarm system at the LaPierre Condos was in fact working and operating at the time in question.
– The Emergency Lighting was working at the time in question. How it works is the Emergency lighting will only come on if the is a disruption of NORMAL power. Which means if the power goes out, then it will come on. JCP&L cut the power to the LaPierre around 6:30 in the morning.
– The sprinkler system was working and fully operational during the time in question. The sprinkler system was shut off by OGFD personal around 6:30 am due to about 2 feet of water accumulating on the 4th floor. This was compromising the integrity of the floor and the SAFETY of all the Firefighters inside the building itself. Several pumps had to be brought in to pump the water out of the LaPIerre.
* Here is a little insight on HOW A SPRINKLER WORKS: A sprinkler head goes off at 130 Degrees Fahrenheit. Other heads will not activate unless they are compromised with the same heat temperature. Meaning you can have a sprinkler head go off on the 4th floor and none on the first floor.
I hope that this helps educate the public into what ACTUALLY occurred.
Regardless of what ATF, the NJ Fire Marshal or the local Fire Department discovers, the main fact is that the Neptune Township Committee has needlessly put the citizens of Ocean Grove in danger for the last 10 years. Homeowners have been begging the township to do something about the abandoned firetraps for as long as I have lived here.
Nothing gets done, no new regulations, no summons, no publicity of the offenders….. Other towns seem to be able to protect their citizens? Why not Neptune? My cynical side is beginning to think
there is some sort of $$$ connection! The only thing the owners of these properties understand is profit, so the township must make it more expensive to NOT maintain the buildings.
They must stop the demolition by neglect that allows them to let a building rot away so they can build bigger and more traxable on the lot!
I hope someone at the County, State or Federal levels is looking at any connection between developers and politicians!
I was talking with a few residents from the laPierre and they said the sprinklers weren’t working and there was no fire emergency lighting working the smoke was so thick that they had to feel there way down the steps.what the hell does the fire inspector do ?
A true investigation completed by those, who are not ‘on the take’ – I have been waiting for this day, this day where justice is finally served and our beautiful town and homes can stop being destroyed.
So sad, glad someone is looking at this!
It’s March, of course there’s a fire in town.
Sure hope this means an honest, transparent process not tainted by Neptune Township. Fingers crossed.