Fire officials: 1 commercial building destroyed by Ocean County wildfire
Liberty Door and Awning's building completely burnt to the ground, and all the inventory is gone by the family-run business in Lacey.
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The Ocean County wildfire has destroyed one local business, according to the New Jersey Forest Fire Service.
Liberty Door and Awning was a family-run business in Lacey. The building has burned to the ground and all the inventory was destroyed.
"Complete devastation, kind of knew it was coming," said Bob Nosti, president of Liberty Door and Awning. "Got all the word last night, but to wake up and come here and actually see it, it's pretty surreal."
"We have a pretty resilient crew working for me, and they are in the other building right now getting to work, trying to get everyone's door reordered," said Nosti. "We are in the garage door and awning business."
"So, we have a couple weeks of tough times," said Nosti. "We won't rebuild quick enough here, but we'll be somewhere else."
Against the same section of woods is Gladiator Gym.
"That's just a couple of doors down, that could have been us easily," said Shawn Darling, of Gladiator Gym. "I went to bed last night not knowing, not knowing I was going to have a business to come to."
Darling had to evacuate yesterday afternoon as the flames got closer, but his business of 20 years and just 4 months in this location still stands.
"I just want to thank all the first responders for risking their lives to help us out and save our businesses," said Darling.
"Fire crews did what they could, but it was very quick, and you can see what I'm left with and that is nothing," said Nosti.
