Seaside Heights Restaurant 'Totaled' After 6-Alarm Blaze, Fire Chief Says

It took nearly 150 firefighters almost five hours Sunday to knock down a blaze that destroyed the La Casa Del Sol restaurant and sent eight firemen to the hospital, Seaside Heights Fire Chief Sam Samarelli said.

Fire companies were hampered by an 18-inch void between the flat roof of the two-story building and the ceilings in the two apartments on top of the restaurant that made it difficult to reach the flames, Samarelli said.

"It was inevitable," he said. "That's why we lost the entire roof."

The fire had probably been burning for some time before restaurant employees and diners first smelled smoke around 5:15 p.m., Samarelli said.

The Mexican restaurant is located on the corner of the Boulevard and Hancock Avenue.

High temperatures, coupled with roughly 90 percent humidity, felled some of the firefighters. Five Seaside Heights volunteers and three from neighboring fire companies were treated at Community Medical Center in Toms River, some for heat exhaustion, others for smoke inhalation, the chief said.

"The problem we ran into was the humidity," he said.

The cause of the fire is under investigation by the Ocean County Fire Marshal's Office and the Ocean County Prosecutor's Office, which is routine, said Seaside Heights Detective Steve Korman.

Samarelli said when he arrived on the scene, smoke and flames were visible in the southwest corner of the second story.

The occupants were not home at the time of the fire, but a dog in one of the apartments died in the blaze, he said.

Fire companies from Lavallette, Seaside Park, Toms River and Island Heights also responded. Firefighters finally left the scene at 10:30 p.m., more than five hours after they responded, Samarelli said.