Blaze demolishes Milton Diner, pharmacy

Fire ripped through Milton Diner on Route 16 in the early hours of Aug. 10, gutting the building that also housed United Pharmacy.

The fire began about 2 a.m., said Milton Fire Department Assistant Chief Jay Clark. Within 10 minutes, the scene turned from heavy smoke to flames shooting out of the roof of the building. “At one point in time, it did go to a defensive operation,” Clark said. “We had just pulled our guys out, and the ceiling collapsed.”

Crew leader Bill Wright, who has been a volunteer firefighter with the Milton Fire Department since 1977, said that was the first time in his career that he called for evacuating a burning building.

“When we went inside, we had thick smoke conditions and were using a thermal imagery camera to get the temperature differences,” Wright explained. “Midstream, I told everybody to be quiet. We listened, and you could hear a popping sound overhead.”

That’s when firefighters, who were in the diner’s dining room, started pulling down the ceiling and watched the fire spread to the left and out front. Wright said they couldn’t pull the ceiling down fast enough.

“I made the call to evacuate because, after a certain point, the conditions were there where you could have a backdraft,” he said. “You can feel it in your body that it’s time to get out of there. That’s what happened.”

After fighting thousands of fires, Wright said this is the second largest Milton-area fire in recent memory, after the Clean Delaware LLC fire in January 2015.

“The only thing that made this fire different from others was the inability to find the fire right away,” Wright said. “The best thing is there were no mayday calls and no one got hurt. That is just huge when you have that many people running around. A lot can happen real quick.”

Clark said the fire was so intense the department used nearly all of the water in the town’s water tower. Crews were on scene until about 7 a.m., he said. Route 16 between Union Street and Palmer Avenue was closed for several hours while firefighters worked the scene, said Milton Police Department Chief Robert Longo. 

Mary Beth Parker, who, with her husband Jim, owns the building that houses the diner and pharmacy, said she found out about the devastating fire around 3:30 a.m. when a state police officer rang her doorbell.

“I couldn’t comprehend. I was in shock,” she said.

The Parkers, who own Jim Parker Builders Inc. and several rental properties in Sussex County, purchased the building about 10 years ago, around the same time they built the car wash next door. Parker stayed at the fire scene throughout the early morning hours, finally leaving shortly after 9 a.m.

“It’s a total loss,” she said. “We’ll have to bulldoze it down.”

It’s too early to tell how long that will take. But walking among the charred rubble, United Pharmacy co-owner and pharmacist Paul Danielraj was surprisingly optimistic.

“We’ll see how fast we can get back,” he said. “But the first thing is we have to take care of our customers.”

Danielraj said current pharmacy customers - he estimated more than 800 people have used the pharmacy since it opened just over a year ago - can fill their prescriptions at a second location, Sussex Pharmacy in Long Neck by calling 302-947-0333.

“Things will be back to normal soon,” he said. “The physical location may be out for a while, but we’re happy to take care of people at our second location.”

Danielraj and Longo said all controlled substances and other medications have been removed from the pharmacy and taken to a secure location.

Halil Ozturk, identified by police as the owner of the Milton Diner, could not be reached for comment.

The state Fire Marshal’s Office is investigating the origin and cause of the fire, but confirmed Aug. 10 that no injuries were reported. Chief Deputy State Fire Marshal Harry Miller said damages to the structure and equipment are estimated at $500,000.

In addition to the Milton Fire Department, Georgetown, Ellendale, Millsboro, Milford, Greenwood, Slaughter Beach, Lewes and Indian River departments also responded to the scene.