Circumstances of fire, death being investigated
OCEAN CITY – A fire Wednesday morning on Asbury Avenue has left one man dead.
The Ocean City Fire Department and Ocean City Police Department responded to a report of a structure fire at 1914 Asbury Ave., at 10:45 a.m. March 13. Police found a deceased male outside the building on the second-floor landing of an exterior stairway, according to Ocean City public information officer Doug Bergen.
The victim in the fire was identified as the homeowner, Ronald Reichenbach, age 63, Bergen said.
When police and firefighters arrived at the location, black smoke was coming from outside the second floor of a residence. The fire was extinguished quickly, Bergen said in a press realize issued Wednesday afternoon.
There were no other occupants of the building at the time and no injury to any first responder. The structure suffered minimal exterior damage.
Early Wednesday afternoon, an investigator from the State Fire Marshal was at the scene.
“The family of the deceased has been notified and the circumstances around the origin of the fire and death remain under investigation by the Cape May County Prosecutor’s Office and the Ocean City Police Department,” Bergen wrote Thursday afternoon.
–Photos by DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff