WORTON — Yellow fire line tape anchored by a chair and a bike rack block the entrance to the Dollar General store here, which has been shuttered since a fire on Sunday afternoon, Oct. 6.
It is not known when the store will reopen.
Double Net LLC, which has a post office box in Salisbury, is listed as the owner of the 1.3-acre property at 10838 Worton Road, according to the Maryland Department of Assessments and Taxation website. The 9,100 square-foot store, located at the corner of Porters Grove and Worton roads, opened in September 2017.
In a news release, the Office of the Maryland State Fire Marshal estimated losses of half a million dollars, including $400,000 in the store’s contents.
In an email Tuesday, the Kent County Health Department told The Evening Enterprise that “all adulterated food items will be removed and disposed of. A re-inspection will occur when Dollar General is ready to reopen.”
A spokesman for the KCHD said its environmental health team uses the following definition for “adulterated” food: food that contains any poisonous or deleterious substance; is diseased, contaminated, filthy, putrid or decomposed; or is otherwise unfit as food for human beings.
Investigators with the fire marshal’s office attributed an unspecified failure of a refrigeration unit as the fire’s cause.
The preliminary report is that the fire was accidental.
No injuries were reported.
The fire was discovered by a store clerk and called in at 1:20 p.m.
Deputy Levi Manning of the Kent County Sheriff’s Office was first on the scene. Using a fire extinguisher, which is standard equipment in all patrol vehicles, Manning was able to “initially hit the fire and knock it down.” But because of deteriorating conditions, mostly heavy smoke, Manning was forced out of the building, according to a post on the Chestertown Volunteer Fire Company’s Facebook page.
“Firefighters said he [Manning] knocked it down a lot, most likely keeping it from being major damage,” Sheriff Dennis Hickman said in a text message to The Evening Enterprise.
The first-arriving fire apparatus were Command 6 with Chief John “Otis” Darling and Engine 68. Using information shared by Deputy Manning, firefighters knew where to go and they were able to make a quick “knockdown” of the remaining fire, according to the Chestertown Volunteer Fire Company’s Facebook post.
The OSFM reported that the fire was brought under control in 10 minutes.
Efforts then turned to clearing smoke from the building. That took at least 45 minutes, using multiple smoke fans, according to the Chestertown VFC’s social media post.
Chestertown was the primary responding fire company. Also responding were Kennedyville, Betterton, Rock Hall and Galena volunteer fire companies, Kent-Queen Anne’s Rescue Squad, Kent County EMS, Kent County Sheriff’s Office, Delmarva Power and Kent County Health Department — in addition to the Office of the Maryland State Fire Marshal.
This is a developing story.