UPDATE: Building Uninhabitable After Natural Gas Explosion In Seaside Heights

by Patricia A. Miller

UPDATE, 7 p.m.: The preliminary investigation into the explosion and fire at a Sumner Avenue residence in Seaside Heights has found they were related to a natural gas leak from inside the structure, Al Della Fave, spokesman for the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office, said.

The 26-year-old female renter who was taken to Community Medical Center, Toms River, for treatment of minor injuries and burns, has not been identified. She lived in the second-floor apartment, Della Fave said.

A worker who was doing renovations to the first-floor apartment was not injured, he said.

The leak and accompanying ignition source have yet to be determined. Damage to the structure has rendered it uninhabitable. The investigation continues, Della Fave said.

Local fire units responded and quickly extinguished the flames, and the Seaside Heights Police Department, Ocean County Prosecutors Office Arson Unit, Ocean County Sheriff’s Department CSI and Ocean County Fire Marshall’s Office investigated, he said.

PREVIOUSLY: Seaside Heights police and fire officials are on the scene of an explosion that occurred in a two-story house earlier this morning, Detective Steven Korman said.

One woman who lived on the second floor of the two-story apartment building at 223 Sumner Avenue was taken to Community Medical Center in Toms River for evaluation, he said.

Police received a 911 call at 10:10 a.m. of a report of an explosion in the building. A repairman was doing maintenance work on the first floor of the building when the incident happened, Korman said. The west side of the exterior wall of the building was damaged, he said.

The building is ”still standing,” but the cause is under investigation, Korman said.

This is the third house explosion in Ocean County in less than three weeks. On Feb. 24, a Manahawkin home disintegrated and 15 people were injured in an explosion while New Jersey Natural Gas workers were repairing a leaking gas line. And a Point Pleasant Beach man suffered burns over 50 percent of his body in a natural gas explosion at his home March 2.

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