Fire Rescue News - Firefighters control blaze at Revel casino site in Atlantic City; welder's torch seen as cause
By DEREK HARPER Staff Writer | Posted: Saturday, March 20, 2010 | 14 comments
ATLANTIC CITY - Sparks from crews disassembling a crane likely started a short, intense, two-alarm fire at the Revel construction site Saturday afternoon, resort Fire Chief Dennis Brooks said.
"There was no real damage to anything," Revel CEO Kevin DeSanctis said, adding that construction would not be interrupted. "It's just one of those unfortunate things. It creates more smoke than anything."...Continue Reading with more Pictures
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Crews were called to the fire, on a lower-level roof on the Connecticut Avenue side of the project, at 1:32 p.m. Within 10 minutes, thick, black smoke was visible from the mainland.
The fire started near where part of a construction crane fell last Saturday during a northeaster. Crews had been using acetylene torches to take down the rest of the crane.
Brooks said the sparks, landing on inch-thick plastic foam insulation, likely started the fire. He said between 30 and 40 pallets of insulation burned.
The concrete roof was undamaged, Brooks said. The roof is part of a lower-rise building that houses, among other things, the theaters that will be part of the Revel casino.
Early fire companies had difficulties finding adequate water pressure on the seventh floor, as the yellowish-black smoke billowed skyward. Brooks said the fact that the site was still under construction made the fire labor-intensive.
It took firefighters about 15 minutes to get one hose on the blaze and another few minutes to get a second in place. A third hose took about 10 more minutes to get in place.
Water from lower floors of the low-rise part of the building also was rerouted to charge the standpipe on the roof. Brooks said firefighters had difficulties separating working fire equipment in the building from what was still under construction.
Construction supplies on the roof, including wood pallets and 5-gallon buckets of combustible glue, also slowed the firefighters' progress, Brooks said.
Heat from the fire cracked and broke glass as the firefighters worked to douse the flames. Brooks said 27 panes shattered.
By 2:25 p.m., firefighters used hooks to separate burning material and unburned insulation, knocking it down by 2:30 p.m. and reporting it under control shortly afterward.
Police - diverted from traffic control during the resort's St. Patrick's Day Parade - shut down Connecticut Avenue at Pacific and Oriental avenues in both directions near Revel.
Early on, some St. Patrick's Day Parade revelers, distinguished by their green clothing, gathered with other onlookers to watch the smoke pouring from the building, snapping photos with camera phones.
Damien Miner, 42, and his son Damien Miner Jr., 15, were visiting from Philadelphia and fishing in the inlet with the elder Miner's brother and father. They ran when they saw smoke.
"The new Atlantic City is burning," Miner Sr. said. "So we came to see what is the problem."
Staff writer Donald Wittkowski and Assistant City Editor Kevin Shelly contributed to this report.
Contact Derek Harper: 609-272-7046 DHarper@pressofac.com
