Shore House Fire Alarm May Need Modification to Transmit to Police Dept.

The Ocean County Fire Marshal's Office is investigating whether the Shore House on Route 88 needs to modify its fire alarm, following a Saturday morning fire.

The second-floor blaze was extinguished by about 35 firefighters in about 20 minutes, and there were no injuries, said Ocean County Fire Marshal Daniel Mulligan on Tuesday.

The fire was discovered by employees when the sports bar was closed to the public. Firefighters were called to the scene at 2:34 a.m. Saturday.

"The fire was contained to a second-floor employee bathroom, but the whole place was full of smoke," Mulligan said. "It took about an hour to clear out the smoke."

"If the fire had smoldered another 15 minutes, it would have been very serious," said Mulligan, who is also chief of the volunteer borough fire department.

In the course of investigating the fire, the county fire marshal's office discovered that the alarm in the sports bar/restaurant only rings there and does not transmit to the local police department.

"I don't know if that's required, it's something we're checking," Mulligan said. "It's an old building that had been used primarily as a restaurant. Now it's more of a bar or a club."

He said he's concerned that if the alarm sounds during one of the many nights a loud band is performing, patrons and staff may not hear the alarm.

"It could be a dangerous scenario," Mulligan said.

He said there are bars and clubs on Long Beach Island that have alarms that sound in local police or fire stations so that if the loud volume of bands drown out the sound of the alarm, it will still be heard by police or firefighters.

Also, some of those same establishments have the fire alarm installed so that if it rings, it automatically shuts down the music being played so that patrons and staff can hear the alarm, Mulligan added.

Shore House Owner Frank Gullace said on Tuesday night, "We already have a system that alerts into the fire department. It is already in our plans to add a modification to send to the police department as well.

"It is not possible to shut off band music because they have their own equipment set-ups, but I assure you it will not be possible not to notice/hear it if the alarm goes off," Gullace said.

"There are extremely bright lights that go off inside and out, and the alarm is loud enough to be heard over the loudest band," he explained.

"The fire marshal has already given us his recommendations, which already were in our renovation plans, and he is coming over to the restaurant tomorrow at 1:30 to go over the finer details," Gullace said.

"We take the safety of our customers and staff very seriously and have, and will, continue to make safety a top priority."

Gullace, who bought the restaurant about a year ago when it had been called the Westside Tavern, said he was able to open for business Saturday morning.

"It turned out to be a very small fire," Gullace said. "We were open for business first thing Saturday morning. We were there to respond quickly, and the fire department responded right away and did a great job."

The fire started when someone put a towel on a wall-hanging light fixture in the second-floor bathroom, left the light turned on and then left the room, Mulligan said.

The light ignited the towel, the fire spread through the bathroom and smoke spread through the establishment, where renovations have been ongoing.

Mulligan said firefighters had to open some walls on the second floor and into the attic to make sure the fire had not spread behind the walls.

The Point Pleasant First Aid Squad also responded to the scene.