CHARRED REMAINS OF CITY'S HISTORY
Community members express thoughts in fire's wake
Posted by the Asbury Park Press on 02/28/06
BY A. SCOTT FERGUSON
AND NANCY SHIELDS
STAFF WRITERS
ASBURY PARK With bare hands and the help of two construction
workers, Carolyn Curtin started clearing the ice away from the
black, metal sign that simply read: Atlantic Hotel.
The sign appeared to be all that remained of both the historic
Atlantic and Belmont hotels, which burned down during a wind-swept
fire Sunday afternoon.
"It's sad," said Curtin, who lives a few houses away from the now-
destroyed hotels on Asbury Avenue, Monday. A member of the city's
historical society, Curtin hoped to salvage the sign as a piece of
the city's history that is now gone forever.
"The Belmont was especially beautiful," said Curtin, who has lived
in Asbury Park for four years. "In my house, I have original
postcards from both of the hotels.
Of both of the hotels, the Belmont was architecturally superior. It
was much more significant."
As Curtin attempted to salvage the hotel sign, city firefighters and
investigators from the Monmouth County Fire Marshal's Office and
Prosecutor's Office began sifting through the remains of both
buildings which were connected by a walkway in an attempt to
discover what triggered the blaze.
"Right now, it's a waiting game," said Garrett M. Giberson, a
spokesman for the city's Fire Department, Monday. "We're still
investigating certain things at this point, and we'll take it from
there."
Westminster Communities, which plans to build condominium buildings
on the 300 Asbury Avenue block, where the two hotels were located,
had purchased the vacant hotels from Asbury Partners last week.
The fire started about 4:45 p.m. Sunday and took almost four hours
to bring under control. Firefighters remained throughout the night
and began searching the ice-covered debris Monday morning with a
specially trained arson dog.
In addition, a State Police cadaver dog was brought in to ensure
there were no bodies inside the buildings when the fire started.
Giberson said there were no reports of any injuries, and no one had
been found inside the buildings after searching.
The two buildings had been vacant for some time. In recent years,
both were used for health care facilities.
In addition to fighting the fire inside the two hotels, Giberson
said firefighters helped keep wind-blown embers from starting
another fire on nearby Cookman Avenue, where new construction has
been under way.
The blaze was just across Cookman Avenue from Westminster's new
condominiums and town houses going up between Cookman and Lake
avenues.
On Monday, Sam Gershwin, Westminster's president, said that, except
for a little water, the Westminster site was fine and that he was
grateful to Asbury Park firefighters for protecting the new
buildings.
City Manager Terence Reidy said the blazing structure "was totally
engulfed, and the wind was so strong, it was sending embers all
over. Our guys had to get there, assess the fire, set up the entire
perimeter and fight the fire while they protected all the other
structures.
"They did an amazing job, and Asbury received support from
surrounding communities all shoulder to shoulder," Reidy said.
On Monday, despite the wind and bitter cold, people wandered by the
remains of the two hotels to take pictures and talk about what had
happened.
"I find it really sad," Joseph Satterfield, 50, who lives on Sixth
Avenue, said Monday. "I had tears in my eyes just thinking about it.
It had so much history, and a fire is so devastating. I just thank
God it was empty."
Sunday's fire, so close to the new buildings, brought back memories
of a September 1987 fire, where the first 16 of 50 town houses next
to Wesley Lake went up in flames during an arson fire. The homes,
built by then-partners Henry Vaccaro and Joseph Carabetta, were part
of a massive redevelopment plan that failed.
The destroyed homes were never rebuilt.
On Monday, Vaccaro's company, which does local contracting and
demolition work, took down the Belmont. The Atlantic had already
fallen in from the fire.
Giberson said investigators will return to the hotels' remnants
today to continue the investigation. Giberson said the investigation
would continue unhindered, despite the fact that the city's Fire
Department was forced out of its headquarters Monday because of
safety concerns.
Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AsburyPark/
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
