NJ fire eyewitness deserves an Emmy

I won﷽der if Way🌠ne Cimorelli is eligible for an Emmy Award.

Doubtful, but why not? Here goes: I hereby nominate WNBC-Ch. 4 reporter Wayไne Cimorelli for a local Emmy in the category of live, on-the-spot news reporting from an active crisis scene.

Other than the fact that💛 I don’t have that authority and Cimorelli doesn’t work for Ch. 4, there shouldn’t be a problem.

Two Thursday evenings ago, as Seaside H🅰eights, NJ’s bo🦄ardwalk and its businesses burned, Cimorelli, 60, was hooked up by phone with Ch. 4 anchor Chuck Scarborough.

A🐎nd for the next 10 minutes, Cimorelli, who owns three boardwalk establishments — all in growing peril — provided a compelling account of what happened, what w♔as happening and what might soon happen.

And Cimorelli did so in a concerned but detached voice, flatly speaking the who, what, where, when and why of a fire that had summoned, on the quick, six fire departments — one,💖 he said, from Ship Bottom, NJ, 34 miles away.

Nothing needed to be🌠 asked; Cimorelli instinctively, a༺nd without any OMG! enhancements, reported the news.

And for those 10 minutes Cimorelli spoke to WNBC — and its audi𒊎ence — he did so with his shoulder pressing his cellphone to his ear. He needed his arms to operate the fire extinguishers he’d carried to the roof, explaining that many boardwalk business roofs are cꦛovered by rubber. Wind-blown embers stick to the roofs, then quickly enflame.

Cimorelli spoke to WNBC and to us while😼 extinguishing these small🅺er fires, here, there and everywhere.

And the🏅n Cimorelli had to go. His daughter was 𝄹calling.

And then h🥂e called a fellow boardwalk businessman who lives in🌸 Lakewood, and told him to get there right away, head for the roof — and bring fire extinguishers.

And then Ch. 4, apparently and wisely realizing that in Cimorelli 💟they had reporting gold — better than what it could present, at that point — put Cimorelli back on the air.

It was then that Cimorelli provided his first and only evidence of self-concer🍌n, while maintaining a good reporter’s sen꧟se of what might be coming, next. And it was gripping.

A lifelong Jersey Shore guy — his first boardwalk gig was in💙 1967 — he told Ch. 4 that he’d just run into a fireman he knows. The firefighter asked if he still owns the building that holds his businesses. After telling him that he does, Cimorelli said, “I didn’t like the look on his face.” Wow.

Three days later, we fo♏und Cimorelli, who was at work. His businesses wereཧ up and open.

“We were spared,” he said, “made it by about three blocks. But in a fire like that, the embers can blow anywhere, skipping a block. We were lucky. 𓄧Not everyone was.”

“Lucky,” by Cimorelli’s recent standards. In October, Hurricane Sandy left him $3 million worth of damage, for which, Cimorelli said, he coul𝓰d only retrieve $700,000 in insurance. He rebuilt.

“I employ a lot of people, and we did the best we could to keep 𒉰everyone on.

“But jeez, g𝕴iven what this fire was, and w🔥hat it became with the wind — smoke and fires everywhere; on roofs, the condominium across the street, the boardwalk — it could’ve been a lot worse. The police, fire departments — and they came from everywhere — everyone did a great job.”

One of Cimorelli’s Seaside Heights establishme༺ntꩲs is a terrific Mexican restaurant, Spicy Cantina.

Maybe the next time we’re down that way we’ll stop in, order the two-alarm enchiladas and a pitcher of something cold andꦇ wet to serve as our own fire extinguꩵisher.

And then we’ll present Cimorelli with our local Emmy for simꦫultaneous service — a thank-you for distinguished civilian fire extinguishing and a thank-you for a civilian TV reporting job very well done.