UPDATE: Power Restored In Holiday City Grenada Street Fire

Power has been restored and a cooling center closed following a woods fire at Grenada Street in Holiday City.

Several homes on Grenada Street in Holiday City were evacuated late last night after a downed live transmission wire started a fire in the woods nearby, Berkeley Sgt. George Dohn said.

"The wire is arcing and we can't get back in there," he said around 1 a.m.

The Manitou Park Volunteer Fire Company was on the scene. Jersey Central Power and Light workers arrived a short time later to deal with the live wire and the fire was then extinguished. The fire was near a home at 38 Grenada St., Dohn said.

"We did ask a few people to leave," he said. "They went to stay with family and friends."

The fire was actually burning on the Toms River side of a nearby railroad bed, but the homes are in Berkeley Township, Dohn said.

Mayor Carmen F. Amato Jr. said the incident left about 4,000 homes in Holiday Heights and Holiday City South without power.

"Berkeley OEM (Office of Emergency Management) had set up a cooling center for residents of those areas to go to at Silver Ridge Park East Clubhouse," Amato said. "Berkeley Township OEM, Berkeley CERT and Councilwoman Judy Noonan were on site."

About 300 homes in the Bayville section of the township were still without power as of 5:30 a.m., due to the violent thunderstorm that swept through the area earlier Saturday evening. The affected sections include Sylvan Lakes, Eugene Furey Boulevard, Sloop Creek Road and Jerome Avenue, the mayor said.

"We have a lot of trees down all over town," Dohn said.