Firefighters work to contain a blaze that severely damaged a Dollar Tree store in Beaver Brook Plaza near New Castle, reported about 7:20 p.m. Friday. William Bretzger/The News Journal
A fire heavily damaged a Dollar Tree store in Beaver Brook Plaza, off U.S. 13, near New Castle, on Friday. It was the second fire there this year.
The multi-alarm blaze was reported shortly after 7 p.m., Assistant State Fire Marshal Michael G. Chionchio said. The fire was upgraded to a second-alarm almost immediately after initial companies arrived.
Smoke was coming from the roof with flames inside the building when the Wilmington Manor Fire Company arrived, he said.
State fire investigators are at the scene looking for the fire's origin and cause, Chionchio said.
All available personnel were summoned to the fire, the police scanner said.
"Look at the smoke!" Staci Turk told Jose Santiago, and the two peered out of their apartment window to find black smoke across the sky.
The two decided to come out and watch the smoke crawl across the sky.
"At one point, the smoke was all the way over the Food Lion," Santiago said.
This is the second fire in two months at the Dollar Tree in Beaver Brook Plaza. The store reopened only last week.
"We were just in there a few days ago and saying how glad we were it was open again," Santiago said.
The first fire was reported on Jan. 24 at about 7:36 p.m. "Initial crews reported smoke showing from the front doors with a fire in one of the display racks," Good Will Fire Company reported on its Facebook page.
The fire company said it assisted Wilmington Manor Fire Company on the earlier fire for about 30 minutes before clearing.
Carolyn Kidd-Schmidt said she, too, had just hours ago told the kids in her school bus she was relieved the store was open again. She said the damage from the first fire was not nearly as bad as the one coating the skies with smoke Friday night.
She and her husband, Bob Schmidt, a past fire Chief of Good Will Fire Company No. 1, observed the smoke shift back and forth between light and dark smoke.
"When it's black, that means there is an active fire. When it's white, that means there is water already on it and it's going out," Kidd-Schmidt said. "We were watching it go back and forth."
The two said they love the excitement, and so do their two sons, who were both responding firefighters.
Schmidt and his wife said they weren't worried watching their sons work.
"They aren't inside," Schmidt said. "What they are doing now is surrounding and drowning."
Firefighters actively combatted the fire from all angles, including the roof, to put out the fire that had displaced employees at all the stores on the strip: Dollar Tree, Beaverbrook Liquors, Cut Creators, Sunset Subs and Steaks, Asian House, Airport Cleaners, Pivot and Food Lion.
As of 10 p.m., firefighters were still attempting to douse the flames.
Monetary damages have not been determined, Chionchio said.