Once it was deemed safe to enter by fire officials, the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office: Arson Unit (OCPO:AU), Ocean County Sherif’s Department: Criminal Investigation Unit (OCSD:CIU), Ocean County Fire Marshal’s Office (OCFM), the State Fire Marshal’s Office (SFM) and the Lacey Township Detective Bureau (LTDB) preceded to investigate the start of the 4 alarm blaze.

The fire was first reported on Wednesday, September 5th, 2018 at 8:45 am. It was reported as a structure fire at Caffery’s Tavern located at 440 South Main street (aka Route 9)  and Lacey Township PD as well as multiple local area Fire Departments were dispatched to suppress the fire. Upon arrival they found heavy smoke coming from the restaurants roof. Once the fire spread to the roof system the fire developed rapidly and caused damage to the entire structure.

While there were no injuries to any Caffery’s employee’s one firefighter was treated for heat exhaustion at Community Hospital in Tom’s River. The fire was under control by about 11:30am and fire personnel rapidly began working inside the structure putting out pockets of fire.

The origin of the fire was located along the West wall of the kitchen on the stove top, and the cause of the fire was determined to be accidental.