A huge fire ripped through the Jersey Shore boardwalk Thursday night, destroying dozens of businesses along a four-block stretch in Seaside Park and Seaside Heights, two of the areas devastated during last year's Hurricane Sandy.

Hurricane Sandy lay waste to a large section of Atlantic City's iconic Boardwalk, with the storm itself still several miles off shore.

An 11-year-old girl from Pleasantville, N.J. died on Friday afternoon after falling about 100 feet from a Ferris wheel at Morey's Piers in Wildwood, N.J. Abiah Jones of Pleasantville, N.J. was riding by herself in a car when she fell from the wheel and landed on the ground below; she was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital. An eyewitness says Jones fainted after "peeking over the railing" and fell; so far, no mechanical malfunctions have been detected. Jones was in Wildwood for the "Education Extravaganza," an annual event that draws thousands of schoolkids to the piers. Apparently she is the first person to die at the amusement park since the Morey Organization took it over in 1969. [NYDN, NYT. Image by danellesheree via Creative Commons]