Fire at Worton Dollar General causes temporary closure

WORTON — At the Worton Dollar General on Sunday, a fire broke out due to what the Maryland Fire Marshal reported as an unspecified failure of a refrigerator unit.

The Fire Marshal report further states, the fire at 10838 Worton Road was deemed accidental and caused an estimated loss of $100,000 in structure and $400,000 in contents. No one was injured and it took ten minutes to control with 18 firefighters on-site.

The primary responding company was Chestertown Volunteer Fire Department that later issued their press release.

According to their report, at 1:22 pm on Sunday, Oct. 6, Chestertown Volunteer Fire Company with multiple other companies, was dispatched for the Structure Fire at the Dollar General store in Worton.

A deputy from Kent County Sheriff’s Office arrived first on the scene and used a fire extinguisher inside but due to the excessive smoke was forced out of the building.

First arriving was Command 6 with Chief John “Otis” Darling and Engine 68. According to reports, they laid a 5” Large Diameter Hose down that acted like an above-ground water and main supply hose.

They continued into the parking lot deploying a single 1-3/4 fire attack hose, entering the building. Officials knew which way to go from the deputy’s instructions, and faced with heavy smoke, were able to do a quick “knock down.”

The fire was controlled through those actions even though other precautionary measures were deployed. The report said that they had an additional supply line and Tower 6 was up on the roof, but no action needed to be taken.

With no fire, their efforts turned to clearing the building of smoke, taking more than 45 minutes.

Conducting an Origin and Cause investigation, a representative from the Maryland State’s Fire Marshal’s Office strongly believed the cause to be electrical. As a result Delmarva Power arrived on-site, however service was left on after determining it was safe.

Additionally, a representative from the Kent County Health Department arrived due to the the amount of food in the store. Their decision was to condemn and dispose of all food material.

The store is temporarily closed until further notice.