Early Sunday morning at approximately 2:46 a.m., the Indian River Volunteer Fire Company (Sta. #80) was alerted for a commercial structural fire which resulted in a box alarm response from Millsboro Fire Company (Sta. #83); Lewes Fire Department (Sta. #82); Sussex County Paramedics; and the local ambulance service provider. The box alarm was reported as a working structural fire in a local automotive repair facility between Bay Farm and Long Neck roads just off of John J. Williams Highway (Route #24). Arriving units on the scene identified heavy smoke conditions with open fire and flames through the roof of the commercial structure. Chief Steven C. Deery, Jr. was the commanding officer for the structural fire and requested that Engine #80-2 provide an initial fire suppression attack to the front of the commercial structure and to gain access via the front overhead garage doors. The next arriving fire engine was #80-1 and assigned to provide a fire suppression attack to the rear of the structure. Engine #80-1, activated a 3” blitz line and established a water supply for the incoming ladder truck, Ladder 80. The Millsboro Volunteer Fire Company was assigned to supply water via Tanker 83 to the ladder and fire suppression activities on the western side of the fire ground operations. Additional resources (manpower and apparatus) were requested to the fire ground operations from the Rehoboth Beach Volunteer Fire Company (Sta. #86); Georgetown Volunteer Fire Company (Sta. #77); and Gumboro Volunteer Fire Company (Sta. #79). Manpower and apparatus resources from Lewes and Millsboro fire companies were assigned to establish a hydrant connection with 5" large diameter hose to Tanker 83. Stand-by coverage was provided by Dagsboro Fire Company (Sta. #73); Frankford Fire Company (Sta. #76) and Bethany Beach Volunteer Fire Company (Sta. #70). During the incident firefighting personnel were evacuated from the building in order to eliminate any potential injury from an exterior wall collapse. At approximately 4:13 a.m., Chief Deery placed the incident under control and requested a continual effort to finalize the fire suppression operations. Route #24 was closed between the intersections of Long Neck & Bay Farm roads for the entire duration of this incident which was approximately 4 hours and 44 minutes. The other responding entities included; the Delaware State Fire Marshal for an investigation, the Delaware State Police for an investigation; and the Delaware Department of Transportation for roadway safety concerns. The incident remains under investigation by the respective authorities. You may view additional images of this emergency incident at: http://www.lewesfire.com/gallery.cfm?id=130&pos=2 http://www.wgmd.com/newspost/fullnews.php?id=3254