Roof collapses as five-alarm fire rips through building on Ocean Grove boardwalk

Fire has heavily damaged a New Jersey boardwalk cafe, but no injuries have been reported.

Officials in Ocean Grove said the fire broke out at about 11:30 a.m. Saturday at the Dunes Boardwalk Cafe building, which houses several seasonal businesses. It was reported to be unoccupied at the time.

Firefighters battled the flames from the roof and briefly controlled the blaze, but flames eventually shot out of the upper part of the building and it grew to five-alarm status.

Sea Bright firefighters captured footage, below, of flames shooting from the roof around 2:30 p.m.

Live Footage from the Ocean Grove Fire, taken about ten minutes ago, by One of our officers on scene@ABC7NY @JSHurricaneNews @NBCNewYork @News12NJ @fox5ny @brian4NY pic.twitter.com/m3P2PVmRLc

— Sea Bright Fire (@SeaBrightFire) April 13, 2019

Fire departments from Ocean and Monmouth counties remained battling the blaze well into the evening.

The Asbury Park Press reports that a Neptune Township police officer pushed back the beach crowd, yelling, “The whole thing is going to go.” The roof collapsed sometime after 2 p.m. Saturday.

Wind pushed the smoke into northern coastal Monmouth County.

The cause of the fire wasn’t immediately known. It was just a block north of a 2017 fire that damaged or destroyed seven buildings.

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The Associated Press contributed to this report.