Sweetwater Casino Fire Probe Continues; Owners Hope to Rebuild
From the Atlantic City Press Published: Wednesday, July 02, 2008
By ERIC SCOTT CAMPBELL Staff Writer, 609-272-7227
MULLICA TOWNSHIP - Twenty-four hours of smoke and spray at the charred Sweetwater Casino ended in the Tuesday morning twilight as firefighters shut off the river-fed hoses. The investigation into the restaurant fire's cause was suspended later in the day, but it will continue today with an electrical engineer and an alarm engineer on site, according to Sgt. James Wild, of the township police.
Click here for full article
(Continued from Page 1)
Owners hope to rebuild the Mullica River landmark by next spring.
Tuesday's immaculate weather mirrored Monday's, but without the choking smoke plumes and the spent firefighters resting on picnic tables. Investigators used an excavating machine to remove pieces of the collapsed roof, trying to find clues. An arson-detection dog examined the wreckage Tuesday afternoon.
Burn patterns show the blaze started in the rear bar area, Wild said, but no evidence implicates lightning, arson or any other specific force.
Residents heard a huge thunder clap at about 2 a.m. Monday. The National Weather Service confirmed Tuesday that there were lightning strikes in the Sweetwater area around that time. "We might never find out" the cause, said Wild, a fire investigator for 15 years.
The site will be cordoned off at least until Friday, as insurance company adjusters are due in Thursday, Wild said. Owners Jeff Anastasi and Joe Cavalieri are shopping for their own adjuster to take a look, too, Cavalieri said.
The two men ambled around the site in T-shirts and shorts Tuesday. They plan to visit other area riverfront restaurants for inspiration in the coming months; the 81-year-old one-story building had grown a room at a time over the years, and Cavalieri indicated a simpler, slightly smaller design would be in order.
He guessed "five or six months" would be the best-case scenario to finish permitting and construction, but he'd be happy to open by Mother's Day 2009.
Anastasi and Cavalieri will need Pinelands Commission clearance to rebuild, but "if they are proposing to reconstruct the restaurant at the same square footage and within the same footprint, it appears it would not raise any issues," commission spokesman Paul Leakan said.
The rebuilding plans are good news for township government, which pulled in nearly $40,000 in property taxes from the restaurant last year. The property sold for $1.6 million in 2005 and was most recently assessed at $1.1 million.
Fire spared the gift shop building next door. When its power was restored Monday afternoon, owner Elva Bednarski opened the store to bystanders - it's usually closed Mondays - and met a rush of nostalgia shopping. She sold $1,000 in restaurant memorabilia in three hours.
Bednarski said she might stay open this summer. The dozens of boat slips Anastasi and Cavalieri rent also were untouched and will continue to be used.
E-mail Eric Scott Campbell:ECampbell@pressofac.com
FOR INFORMATION
For information on the fire or to contact the owners, e-mail:
sweetwatercasino@aol.com
