Ocean Casino Fire Floods Lobby, Guest Shares Story

The casino gaming floor at Ocean Casino Resort has been closed since this morning as the casino works to clean up water damage caused by an early-morning fire.

The Atlantic City Fire Department says they were called to the casino at about 5:30 am Monday with reports of a small fire in the building's linen capture room. Officials said the fire produced heavy smoke and burning debris.

Water Damage Happened During Fire Fight

While firefighters were working to extinguish the fire, a significant amount of water was released in portions of the building. This water caused a ceiling in the hotel lobby to collapse, which also affected elevator shafts and back-of-house hallways.

After firefighters finished with their work, the scene was turned over to the Ocean Casino Resort facilities staff who have been working to mitigate the damage.

No injuries have been reported at this time, and the cause of the fire remains under investigation.

At 9 am this morning, Ocean Casino posted a notice saying that the gaming floor would be closed today and the hotel would be operating on limited capacity.

Ocean Casino's $30,000 Slot tournament scheduled for 3 to 8 pm today was canceled.

Restaurants, pools, and other amenities have remained available to guests.

One Guest's Experience

I have been communicating with an Ocean Casino guest, Chris, since shortly after the fire caused the casino flooding this morning.

Our room is on 42. We had to take elevators to the spa, which is one floor above the lobby, then walk down steps to the lobby.

There was an "urgent" voicemail on our phone. Said watermain broke and take elevators to spa instead of lobby. There's 2 sets of marble steps from spa to lobby. I dont know what they'll do for handicapped people.

Then we exited stage left to the parking garage and went to breakfast elsewhere. The elevator down was acting weird, and I was worried we would get stuck. Like it was grinding and just weird.
Don't know what we will be going back to!

Chris also shot a short video showing cascading down the fire escape stairs as he made his way out of the casino this morning.

After spending the day at the beach, Chris returned to Ocean Casino at about 5 pm today, and he reports that most activities except gambling have returned to normal.

The restaurants and the lobby bar are open.

He was unable to take the hotel lobby elevator back to his room and had to use the elevators through the spa instead.

Thanks for your help and your photos, Chris!