Fire rages on Sandy-stricken Jersey Shore

>> natalie up in the helicopter over new jersey. natalie ?

>> reporter: and good morning to you, matt. flying over here and taking a look down at the jersey shoreline it's just absolutely staggering to see what i'm seeing now. you've been talking about the fire that we are over right now in mantoloking, new jersey. this shoreline, as you know, completely devastated. the governor christie saying the shore of his youth is gone. the rides he took his kids on this summer are in the atlantic ocean . this fire, as far as we know, appears to be storm-related, but obviously we cannot confirm that right now, but what we've been able to make out by some of the structures down there, it appears some homes here have been damaged. lots of points of fire, about 25 or more that i've counted so far. the aftermath of this storm as we have seen, as you yourself witnessed in breezy point, queens yesterday. these fires are likely related to natural gas lines that are sparking the fires or downed electrical lines. this one, because of the location of it, as you can see, what was the shoreline and beautiful ocean front property , now completely pushed back, gone, covered by sand and fire there now here in mantoloking, new jersey. we're about four miles north of seaside. we know the situation there. the rides, the famous boardwalk, has also been completely wiped away. this is a community and area so vastly devastated. many, many people hopefully are out of these areas and have evacuated before the storm, but this fire very involved here. it's going to take a while perhaps before first responders can get to this because this is part of a barrier island . so it's very much cut off, and what was -- what is left of the roads very hard to make out there as well, so situation developing here as we are keeping our eye on this here for you, and we'll have more of an overview of the entire jersey shoreline coming up throughout the morning. matt?

>> thanks, natalie . we'll be checking in with you several times during the show. we appreciate it very much.