Early morning fire causes $2M in damages for downtown Laurel building

LAUREL, Del.- The Delaware State Fire Marshal’s office is investigating a fire that happened early Wednesday morning, leaving a historic downtown building completely destroyed.

According to the Laurel Fire Department, they responded to a call of heavy smoke coming from the 3rd floor of 1 Chinese Restaurant just before 1:00a.m. on East Market Street.

It took crews hours to get it under control and all that’s left is the shell of building.

We’re told the cause of the fire is still under investigation and no injuries have been reported at this time.

We spoke with Town Manager Jamie Smith who tells us this is a devastating tragedy for the town, as the building was in works to be renovated. “It just got new owners probably 6 months ago. The new owner was rehabbing it to put new apartments upstairs and eventually do commercial downstairs,” Smith said.

“Just to see it completely destroyed by fire and knowing it was going to be an asset to our community. It was going to be an improvement to our community. It just saddens us.”

The Town Manager says once clean-up is done, they will work with the property owner on next steps.

The State Fire Marshal’s office estimates the total damages to be at $2 million.