Damaged By Fire

Transforming a charred church interior in Hampden into a humming 21st-century advertising agency office returned Jack Gilden to his family roots. Gilden told 75 guests at yesterday's opening that his late grandfather Max was a Russian immigrant who "arrived on the doorstep of this community from the ghettos of Eastern Europe." His small grocery store on nearby Ash Street became a mainstay for food and credit during the Depression, said Gilden, 36. A few blocks away, on West 36th Street, Gilden Integrated, an advertising agency specializing in high-tech accounts, has opened its new offices.

A Cockeysville automobile dealership was heavily damaged yesterday when a two-alarm fire broke out in the shop area. The fire at Valley Motors in the 9800 block of York Road forced police to close a stretch of heavily traveled York Road for several hours. Capt. James Korn, a spokesman for the Baltimore County Fire Department, said the fire broke out about 11:15 a.m. when a car in the shop's bay area caught fire. The fire spread quickly to the rest of the two-story building. It took firefighters more than five hours to bring the two-alarm blaze under control, he said.

The Hopewell neighborhood swimming pool, off Snowden River Parkway in east Columbia, may not be able to open Memorial Day weekend because of a pre-dawn fire last week that destroyed the pool's pumping equipment and a wooden building that housed the machinery. Rob Goldman, Columbia Association's vice president for sports and fitness, said it will take a week or two to determine whether the pool, one of 23 public pools in Columbia, will be able to open at all this year. "We're investigating to see if we can rig something to get us through the summer," he said.

Traffic delays are expected in both directions on Main Street in Ellicott City beginning tomorrowat 7 a.m. while a building damaged by fire Nov. 9 is demolished. The work hours for the demolition project are 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays. The job is expected to take four days, weather permitting. Two lanes of traffic will be kept open on Main Street, but traffic will be stopped while equipment is moved, according to the Department of Public Works' Bureau of Highways. Parking will be limited on Main Street.

Baltimore County park officials are trying to determine whether they can save a historic cabin at the Holt Center for the Arts in Overlea that was damaged by fire recently.Fire investigators have not determined the cause of the fire that broke out early Dec. 21 and caused an estimated $50,000 in damage. The fire appeared to have started on the front porch, then burned through the roof of the two-story building off McCormick Avenue.The cabin was used for art classes and is one of four on the property.

Fire heavily damaged a three-story apartment building in Westminster yesterday, one day after the adjacent Goodwill store was destroyed by flames.Fire officials said the two incidents were unrelated.Westminster Fire Department Lt. Charles J. Simpson said the six apartments at 79 W. Main St. were empty because of smoke damage from Thursday's fire."It's a big old house built in 1860 that has had several structures added to it," Simpson said. "The front part is a three-story brick building with six apartment units."

A man was killed in a two-alarm fire last night in Northwest Baltimore, a Fire Department spokesman said.Bruce Wayne Dingle, 40, of 5116, Chalgrove Ave. in Pimlico was found in a rear second-floor bedroom of his home and was pronounced dead at the scene, said Fire Inspector Michael Maybin, the spokesman.Maybin said Dingle's nephew, Demone Mason, 17, escaped the burning rowhouse without injury.Maybin said investigators were seeking the cause of the fire that extensively damaged the two-story dwelling.

A Sykesville family of five stayed with friends and relatives after their two-story, split-level home was damaged by fire Tuesday, fire officials said.State fire marshals said the fire, which broke out near a wood stove at 4: 46 p.m., was caused by a faulty chimney. The home is in the first block of W. Old Liberty Road.William Hodgin, 52, sons William Jr., 21, Timothy, 18, Mark, 16, and daughter Jennifer, 20, were not at home when the fire was discovered by a neighbor.Firefighters from Winfield, Gamber and Sykesville brought the fire under control in about an hour.

A three-alarm fire last night heavily damaged a 138-year-old historic residence that was originally built in the heart of Annapolis to serve as the city's first synagogue.The fire was discovered shortly before 8: 30 p.m. when a passer-by saw flames coming from the second floor of the three-story stucco building at 183 Duke of Gloucester St. and banged on the door to alert the two tenants. They were in the kitchen and unaware of the blaze.The tenants, Catherine Lange and Laura Zandenberge, escaped without injuries, but a firefighter was treated for smoke inhalation at Anne Arundel Medical Center, fire officials said.

Two schools damaged by fire and graffitiTwo Savage schools were damaged by fire and graffiti early Friday, and Howard County police believe two boys seen running from the area are to blame.Bollman Bridge Elementary School in the 8200 block of Savage Guilford Road and Patuxent Valley Middle School in the 9100 block of Vollmerhausen Road each suffered about $1,000 worth of damage after plastic recycling bins on the schools' loading docks and a trash bin were burned, said Lt. Ken Byerly, a Howard County fire spokesman.