"You can't replace that stuff," he said, as an acrid pall of smoke hung over downtown Milford.
The fire that ripped through the west side of South Walnut Street on Friday afternoon left ruined buildings and smoldering rubble in its wake. Seven businesses, three apartments and a storefront church were destroyed, and four families were left homeless. Six firefighters were treated for minor smoke inhalation and heat exhaustion.
The properties are within the Victorian South Milford Historic District, which was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983, said F. Brooke Clendaniel, a trustee of the Milford Historical Society.
The cause of the fire remained under investigation Saturday by the state Fire Marshal's Office and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Damage was estimated at $1 million.
City inspector David Murphy said insurance officials and property owners were allowed into the buildings to inspect the premises and retrieve belongings.
The city will bring in a structural engineer Monday to assess some of the damaged buildings before any decision is made on whether they must be condemned.
After that inspection, Murphy said, "We'll get all the property owners together and discuss a game plan as to what we're going to do."
As Hoomans stood outside his soot-filled bar, an examiner from Mid-Atlantic Restoration combed through the tavern and Hoomans' stained-glass shop next door. His preliminary opinion: The building will have to come down.
"I don't know what I'm going to do. Let the smoke clear," said Hoomans, who has owned the bar for almost 20 years. "I guess you could say I got fired from my job, and I'm looking for a new one," he said.
Just up the street at Wiley Hardware & Appliances, Lloyd Golt surveyed the ruins of the store where he worked for nine years.
"There's nothing left of it, nothing," he said, his words emerging in a raspy croak.
Golt, 50, said he inhaled a lot of smoke when he rescued a woman from an adjacent apartment where the fire apparently began.
"I crawled down the hallway, and she was on the floor, unconscious," Golt said. "I just said, 'Jesus, don't let this woman be dead in my arms,' " he said.
The woman regained consciousness as Golt was carrying her down the staircase, and he asked whether she could walk the rest of the way. She said she could, and the two made it to the sidewalk unscathed.
Golt does not know the woman's name, and authorities had scant information on her.
Most of the buildings on the burned-out block date from the late 19th to early 20th centuries.
Atop the Wiley building is a stone crest that reads "1886-1928." The building's cornerstone reads "Laid 1928 by Grand Lodge of Delaware AF and AM."
Gwen Harris-Montague, director of the Delaware Music School, said the school fared better than the devastated businesses.
The music school was recently renovated and had a fire wall that kept flames from spreading. However, the school's roof burned and collapsed, destroying the second-floor piano lab and six pianos.
The school carried insurance, Harris-Montague said, but she is not sure whether it will cover all the damage. Still, she looked for a bright spot in an otherwise gloomy scene.
"Any other day but Friday, we could have had a house filled with students and teachers," Harris-Montague said. "We know we're blessed."
Chet Wilt, disaster volunteer for the American Red Cross of the Delmarva Peninsula, said the agency is providing food and lodging for the 13 people left homeless by the fire.
However, the agency was unable to find motel rooms for the four families because motels were booked for the NASCAR race in Dover.
"Some of them have some family around they can maybe stay with a night or two until we get all the race fans out of town," Wilt said.
On the east side of Walnut Street, Susan W. Newark of rural Greenwood surveyed the devastation from her stand at the Milford Farmers Market.
"It's just so sad. We watched those buildings be restored," Newark said. "It's so sad. Those buildings were 100 years old."
