'Smoke pouring everywhere': Talleyville McDonald's destroyed in Thursday blaze

Smoke hung thick in the air above a section of Concord Pike in Talleyville for several hours on Thursday after a McDonald's restaurant was destroyed in a mid-morning fire.

The blaze, which county paramedics said injured two employees, began a little before 9:15 a.m. By the time firefighters arrived, flames were shooting from the building.

Talleyville Fire Company Assistant Chief Michael DiMauro said the employees' injuries were minor. One woman was taken to the hospital by ambulance, while the other employee declined transport.

The blaze shut down Route 202 for hours as firefighters from numerous agencies battled the flames. The State Fire Marshal's Office later said the fire began in a heating unit on the roof of the building and was caused "by an unknown electrical/mechanical malfunction in the unit."

There were no sprinklers in the building, a news release said.

By noon, firefighters had contained most of the fire, though the fast-food restaurant's roof had collapsed and the inside of the building was blackened. Small flames could still be seen above a drive-thru window, however, as a pair of drones flew above the scene, located at 2507 Concord Pike.

Several onlookers stood outside the building watching firefighters work. One woman said she works for the restaurant, but was not there when the fire began. She declined to speak to a Delaware Online/News Journal reporter, instead directing them to a McDonald's press contact.

At about 12:15 p.m. — three hours after the fire broke out — a single firefighter climbed to the top of a fire ladder that had been extended over the McDonald's. He could be seen looking down at the building before directing a hose and spraying water downward.

Thick clouds of gray and white smoke wafted over the area as firefighters directed their hoses to several still-burning spots in the building.

Emergency personnel from Claymont, Talleyville, Five Points, Elsmere, Brandywine Hundred, Hockessin and Bethel Township, Pennsylvania fire companies and New Castle County Paramedics encircled the restaurant.

'Smoke pouring from everywhere'

According to DiMauro, firefighters who arrived on the scene soon after the 911 call were greeted with "heavy smoke pouring from everywhere."

Crews quickly entered the building and tried to fight the flames from inside, but the fire was "well advanced above the ceiling before we even got here," DiMauro said.

"It got to be too much and we started to have the roof collapse," he said. "We had to pull everyone out."

None of the approximately 100 fire personnel from numerous agencies were injured, DiMauro said. Paramedics said the employee who was taken to Christiana Hospital was a 30-year-old woman who had chest pain. The man who declined transport was 25.

By about 12:30 p.m., firefighters had extinguished the majority of the blaze but were still working to put out hot spots. Two could be seen near the drive-thru windows, where orange flames poked through charred, black rafters.

DiMauro said once those were extinguished, crews would clean up and head out. He said though firefighters worked in the bitter cold for several hours, they were handling the weather well.

"It's a little cold but we're pushing through it," DiMauro said. "We'll get the job done."

A fire here previously

This is not the first fire that has occurred at the popular restaurant, operated by the family-owned Dukart Management Corp.

In late 1999, a 17-year-old worker suffered smoke inhalation and briefly lost consciousness after the State Fire Marshal's Office said another employee started a fire. The teen worker was eating her lunch in the store's basement break room when the blaze broke out.

Seeing smoke, the worker hid in a corner instead of running upstairs. Firefighters rescued her from the basement and took her outside where she was treated.

Representatives from Dukart Management could not be immediately reached on Thursday. The family and its business, which has offices adjacent to the damaged restaurant, is responsible for starting Delaware's first McDonald's as well as the Ronald McDonald House of Delaware.

In 1960, Leonard Dukart opened the state's first McDonald's on Newark's East Main Street. The restaurant would later have to be rebuilt after a gas explosion destroyed the building and injured 22 people in December 1976.

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This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: Fire at Talleyville McDonald's destroys building