Guests flee wedding reception as dance floor caves in at Jersey Shore, officials say

A “rumble” sound sent guests fleeing a wedding reception as the Jersey Shore venue’s dance floor caved in, according to fire officials in New Jersey.

The DJ heard the rumbling noise and made the call to order all attendees to evacuate the building the evening of Sept. 17 on Long Beach Island, the Barnegat Light Volunteer Fire Company No. 1 wrote in a Sept. 18 Facebook post.

No guests were hurt after the dance floor sank below their feet at Daymark, a restaurant that also hosts wedding parties, according to the fire company’s Facebook post. The incident involved the building’s second floor.

Officials did not say what might have caused the floor to cave in.

‘Luckily we were able to get all our first dances in, all our speeches in,” the groom, Brian Gagliardotto, told WABC in an interview.

There were 200 guests in attendance at the wedding reception, the outlet reported.

Photos shared by the fire company show the firefighters responding at the scene with guests gathered outside the venue.

The fire company commended the DJ for helping get attendees out safely in its Facebook post.

“Also, congratulations to the bride and groom!,” officials wrote.

Long Beach Island is about 100 miles south of New York City.

This story was originally published September 21, 2022 at 3:59 PM with the headline "Guests flee wedding reception as dance floor caves in at Jersey Shore, officials say."

Julia Marnin

McClatchy DC

Julia Marnin covers courts for McClatchy News, writing about criminal and civil affairs, including cases involving policing, corrections, civil liberties, fraud, and abuses of power. As a reporter on McClatchy’s National Real-Time Team, she’s also covered the COVID-19 pandemic and a variety of other topics since joining in 2021, following a fellowship with Newsweek. Born in Biloxi, Mississippi, she was raised in South Jersey and is now based in New York State.