The Delaware State Fire Marshal’s Office determined that a Tuesday morning fire that caused $100,000 in damages to a storage building owned by Serpe’s Bakery in Elsmere was accidental.
Chief Deputy Robert Fox reported that the Elsmere Fire Company was called to 1403 Kirkwood Highway at around 9:30 a.m., where they found “heavy fire and smoke” coming from the back of the building.
Investigators later determined that the blaze started on the back end of the building’s first floor after a space heater caught nearby items on fire, Fox said. No injuries were reported.
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The family-owned Serpe’s Bakery – separated from the building fire by a parking lot –was using the building to store boxes and other extra materials, Fox said.
“We are thankful no one was inside the building at the time of the fire,” the bakery wrote on Facebook.
Serpe’s posted that it would temporarily close as the Elsmere Fire Company and other assisting fire departments put out the blaze. First responders’ vehicles shut down traffic on Kirkwood Highway for a few hours, but business resumed as soon as the road reopened.
Remnants of the fire were still visible Wednesday morning. The back porch of the storage building was charred, and shattered glass windows littered the grass. A bright orange sign on the door marked the structure as unsafe.
This is not the first time a Serpe’s Bakery building has caught on fire. The bakery itself was damaged in a blaze on Christmas Eve in 2015, prompting owners to sue the manufacturer of their ovens on five counts including negligence, court records show. The suit was settled in August of 2018.
Serpe’s Bakery declined to comment.
Send story tips or ideas to Hannah Edelman at hedelman@delawareonline.com. For more reporting, follow them on Twitter at @h_edelman.
