On March 12, 2011, 27 Surf Avenue was turned into an empty lot. Another home later was built there. Photo by Ted Aanensen, Blogfinger staff. ©
By Paul Goldfinger, Editor @Blogfinger
This is getting ridiculous. First we had the Manchester Inn conflagration on March 13, 2010 and then there was the destructive Surf Avenue fire on March 11, 2011. Recently a tent burned down—that’s enough to make anybody tense.
Now we add the Main Avenue fire of February 6, 2015. Throughout Ocean Grove’s history there have been many fires which destroyed tinder box buildings including large hotels and boarding hoses.
But you would think that we would have been able to avoid repeats by using superior technology. Of course, many cases are due to human carelessness, and even Smoky the Bear can’t prevent that.
In 2011, an article in Blogfinger questioned the quality of fire investigations in Ocean Grove by County investigators. Here is a link to a review of that subject. Hopefully they have improved in that area. Note that none of these fires were found to be suspicious, not even the tent fire where the electricity and gas had been turned off. Spontaneous combustion perhaps? And how about the “Friday February Fire of 2015?” We’re told that it is “currently under investigation.”
Fire investigators article Blogfinger 2011
So now we have another big fire which will leave a large empty lot on Main Avenue, sort of like the large lots we acquired around the Manchester Inn and on Surf Ave. in the past.
In those locations, opulent single family homes went up. Before the Manchester burned there was talk of converting the building into condos, but that was not to be. Interestingly, the owner of that Inn said that rebuilding the hotel was economically unfeasible.
The Sampler was demolished, and that site remains empty, awaiting construction of two Victorian wannabes. Meanwhile we have another blank space on Main Avenue.
The other double empty lot on the second Beach block of Main Ave. will be where Mary’s Place will be constructed. I think something burned down there in the past. (anybody know?) That zoning story was discussed recently on BF.
So what will happen to the new vacant lots at the site of Friday’s fire? Based on past experience, whatever happens will not be decided by the citizens, no matter how many hearings are held. Representative government in this town is in some respects deficient, at least as far as those who live here are concerned. Transparency of processes needs to be improved, such as in the zoning arena. But, if we are dissatisfied , whose fault is that? Just look in the mirror.