The Big SNOW American Dream indoor ski area in New Jersey will be closed for at least a week while health and safety officials assess the damage caused by a fire over the weekend.
The fire broke out in the ski area in the early hours of Saturday morning, before spreading to the rest of the mall.ย Firefighters from multiple departments quickly extinguished the blaze.
Happening now HHFD at work on the roof of the American Dream mall in East Rutherford pic.twitter.com/lSMDRWa1JH
โ Hasbrouck Hts Fire (@Heightsfd) September 25, 2021
The mall was able to open later that afternoon.ย Nobody was injured and the fire is non-suspicious.
โThe fire was contained to the top of the ski slope. The Meadowlands Fire Department led the response with assists from Bergen County and several area fire departments also responded in the effort to successfully extinguish the fire. The building was unoccupied at the time and there are no injuries reported.โ
– State Police spokesman Sgt. Alejandro Goez
Big SNOW opened in December 2019 and offers four acres of indoor slopes, four surface and aerial lifts with a 160-foot vertical drop, covered by 5,500 tonsย of real snowย that is kept cold by heavy duty chillers maintaining a 28ยบF temperature year-round.ย They released a statement on their social media:
Thank you for the outpouring of concern and encouragement this morning in regards to the fire we experienced overnight. We are grateful to report that there were no injuries as the incident occurred outside of our normal hours of operation.
We can promise you that Big SNOW will be back and better than ever, just as soon as we can safely do so. ย At this point, we are uncertain of how long that will take. ย Unfortunately, we will be closed at least through October 2nd as we assess the total damage and repairs needed to re-open. ย Please keep your eyes out for further announcements on our expected re-opening via our website, social media channels and emails.ย ย
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For any guests who booked for visits during this time period, we will automatically refund your purchases and there is no need to contact us. Refunds can take up to 3-5 business days to post.
Big SNOW is located in the Mega Mall known as American Dream which is the second-largest mall in the United States.ย BigSNOW is one of several attractions that the mall features with others such as Nickelodeon Universe, Dream Works Water Park, Legoland, Sea Life, along with a large selection of specialty shops and restaurants for people to check out. The whole facility could be classified as a destination spot because you could make a whole weekend trip to check out everything the mall offers.