Montville fire leaves sadness in its wake

Montville - Jerry Roberts was working his shift as a dispatcher at the Norwich Police Department early Tuesday morning when he heard a call over the scanner reporting a fire in nearby Montville.

Then he heard the address - 430 Chapel Hill Road - and realized that the fire was at the Oakdale Plaza, a strip mall that houses K-9 Corner, his wife's dog-grooming business.

The fire appeared to have started at the Oakdale Cafe, a new bar that was preparing to open in the coming weeks, before it spread to other businesses. Six out of the 12 businesses at the strip mall - including K-9 Corner, a pizzeria founded by an immigrant from Greece in 1974 and one of the town's first Chinese restaurants - were destroyed by the fire, which was called in at 1:12 a.m.

A cause has not been determined and the blaze is still under investigation, according to the local fire marshal.

Lost in the blaze were not only the walls that held the establishments together but the years of hard work that made them a success.

Roberts and his wife, Kerri, were at the scene several hours after the fire was reported.

"I'm still waiting to wake up," said Kerri Roberts. "It started to sink in when I saw the business's sign catch on fire and fall to the ground."

Jerry Roberts said K-9 Corner, which opened in March 2009, is fully insured. But, he said, it may lose the 200 or so customers it has grown over the past year and a half.

"It's an inconvenience for the customers," Roberts said.

Lena Fotiadis' eyes welled with tears as she watched a friend console her mother, Annie Fotiadis, who owns Oakdale Pizza.

Fotiadis said her grandfather, Timmy Tsekmeres, opened the business in 1974. He won a baker's lottery in Greece that helped him to come to the area and open the pizzeria.

"He learned how to speak English by working at the business," Fotiadis said. "He came here because he wanted a better life for his family. I grew up here. It's really sad."

Chunyan Guo, owner of the Great Wall Chinese restaurant, said her father started the business 18 years ago.

As she walked up the street Tuesday, Guo said, she saw that the restaurant's wall was still standing, giving her hope that it was unscathed. But as she got a closer look she realized that everything inside was destroyed.

Oakdale Cafe was not open to the public at the time of the fire because it was awaiting approval of its request for a liquor license.

"We were going to open within the next couple of weeks," said Dottie Yaworski, whose son owns the bar. "It was going to be a family business. My son bought it. My two daughters and I were going to work there. It's such a loss. It's a sad situation."

Yaworski said she had no idea what could have caused the fire since "nothing was plugged in and no work was done there recently."

Oakdale Fire Chief Gary Murphy said the fire was called in by a passer-by who stopped at the firehouse next to the strip mall and used a phone on the outside of the building to report to the dispatcher that fire was coming through the roof of the cafe.

By the time the firefighter on duty had run out of the building, flames had already broken through the roof of the cafe, Murphy said.

Oakdale fire Lt. Micah Messer said when he responded to the blaze, only the Oakdale Cafe was on fire. But within minutes, he added, the fire had spread.

"There were flames shooting out," Messer said. "We tried to contain it, but once it got on the roof it just spread quickly."

The Oakdale Cafe and K-9 Corner were leveled by the fire. Mall owner John Diamantini said a biker club was also lost in the fire. Oakdale Collectibles, an antiques business next to the Chinese restaurant, was severely damaged.

Firefighters, paid and volunteer, were able to get about 4,000 gallons of water onto the blaze quickly, and within minutes tankers from six departments, including Oakdale, were at the scene. Only one tanker had to take the long route to the fire because of the closure of the Old Colchester Road bridge, but that did not hinder firefigthing operations, Murphy said.

"There was plenty of water," he added. "The fire just got a head start. We feel terrible about the businesses. They've always been good to us."

The chief said although there was a hydrant close by, the department has known for decades that the water system that the hydrant is part of is not equipped to be used for fire suppression.

Messer said because the building is older, it is not required to have fire stops, which could have prevented the fire from spreading along the roof. Murphy said the fire spread rapidly through the attic.

Montville Fire Marshal Raymond Occhialini said the building, built in the 1960s, did not have working fire alarms or sprinklers because they were not required at the time of construction.

No injuries were reported, said Messer. The businesses were closed at the time of the fire.

Occhialini said the cause is still under investigation and that it could take a couple of weeks to complete testing at the site. He was assisted on Tuesday by the state fire marshal's office, local and state police detectives and members of the state police Eastern District Major Crime unit. Officials from the New London County State's Attorney's office were also at the scene.

In all, nine tanker trucks from area towns brought water to the scene from Oxoboxo Lake, filling up near the closed bridge. Two ladder trucks along with five hand lines were used to fight the blaze.

Diamantini has owned the strip mall for the past 10 years. An office that he had for his construction and plowing business was destroyed.

"I've got to figure things out now," he said, "but I do plan to rebuild."

I.LARRANETA@THEDAY.COM

DAY STAFF WRITER MEGAN BARD CONTRIBUTED TO THIS REPORT.