Ocean County Prosecutor says investigation into Lakewood Wildfire at a standstill

Ocean County Prosecutor Bradley D. Billhimer has announced that the investigation into the wildland fire that occurred on Sunday,

March 14, 2021, in Lakewood Township and Brick Township, though ongoing, presently remains at an impasse.  The investigation is being conducted by the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office Major Crime Unit – Arson Squad, Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office High Tech Crime Unit, Ocean County Fire Marshal’s Office, Lakewood Township Police Department Detective Bureau, and Ocean County Sheriff’s Office Crime Scene Investigation Unit.

On March 19, 2021, we announced that the fire’s origin had been identified, along with our conclusion that the fire was intentionally set. Since that time, the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office Major Crime Unit-Arson Squad working in conjunction with the other involved law enforcement agencieshas been attempting to identify the individual or individuals responsible for starting this horrific wildfire, which resulted in the destruction of approximately 167 acres of land, the obliteration of a commercial establishment, a firefighter suffering cardiac arrest while battling the blaze, and the evacuation of hundreds of people from the area,” Prosecutor Billhimer stated. “Detectives have attempted to interview approximately 60 potential witnesses and reviewed video recordings from cameras in proximity to the fire. The vast majority of these potential witnesses have been less than cooperative with our investigation, and as such, we are currently at an impasse at this point in time.  If any member of the public in possession of information with regard to the March 14th wildland fire in Lakewood and Brick Townships to please contact Sergeant Thomas Haskell of the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office at 732-929-2027, extension 3953,Prosecutor Billhimer concluded.

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7 COMMENTS

  1. To prevent these tragedies in the future the townships should be approving the building of developments in those areas. Also with the price of lumber skyrocketing we can definitely use the timber of those forested areas

  2. 1. Yossi. Who said anything about residential buildings there

    2. It was a commercial building which is what supposed to be there thatbwas destroyed

    3. Did you even read the article. Your answer makes no sense If you read the article

    Signed

    Steve pearl

  3. Dear Steave pearl
    1) Since investigations is really not gonna help us the only thing that will help us is prevention for the future. and putting developments in these forested areas would be a very helpful since forestfires usually don’t happen in urban areas…..

    2) dear ‘bea’ I am happy for you that you probably own a home But there are many families and couples that wanna also be homeowners like you. And with the Lakewood housing shortage and unaffordable homes the Development of these areas give them opportunity

  4. Dear Yossi
    So you want to further overpopulate an area so the chance of a forest fire that was intentionally set doesn’t happen again? So if the trees (or should I say what’s left of the trees) are taken down maybe the same person sets fire to a house or business to satisfy their problem. Lakewood is already way too overpopulated and we need no more “development”. Traffic is a mess, kids have a hard time finding a school to attend, litter is off the charts, roads physically are a mess and you want to throw more families into the mix? Lakewood is not the only area people can purchase a home. I guarantee that there are a lot more affordable places to find a home than Lakewood and if you think anyone is buying property around here to build affordable housing, I have a bridge that you may be interested in buying .

  5. Dear ‘zman’
    1) less forest means less chance of forest fires (btw some fires are caused by dry weather).
    2) i do agree that Lakewood has a traffic/accident, and school problem. But I don’t believe that this is a reason to limit development. Since more people means tax revenue that should go towards infrastructure (roads electricity etc) (if the township and county do their job, slowly but surely) and more new schools are opening to accommodate the people.
    3) other neighborhoods are not Lakewood you can’t just send away a bunch of people to become pioneers

Comments are closed.