East Lyme — Four months after a raging fire threatened to destroy family-owned Guy's Oil Service Station in Niantic, owner Dick Gada said he is moving forward with plans to build a $3 million addition to his business.

Facing a serious heart issue and grappling with other family difficulties over the past few months, on top of May's disaster, Gada said that the project's launch is a sign to the community that the West Main Street business isn't going anywhere.

“It’s been a year of setbacks,” said Gada, who is 77. “But we want our customer base and the community to know that we are up and going and we are not backing down.”

The company, which celebrated its 80th anniversary in February, serves thousands of homes and businesses through its mainstay oil delivery services, which Gada said extends over an approximately 20-mile radius from Niantic, stretching from Madison to Stonington, East Haddam to Norwich.

Gada inherited the business from his parents and has been running Guy's Oil — which includes Guy’s Inc. and Guy’s Oil Service Station Inc. — since his father's death in 1981. He continues to oversee every aspect of the business, Gada said last week, while his son, Richard Jr., manages the company's day-to-day operations.

According to site plans submitted to the town’s zoning department, a 28,000-square-foot garage will be built behind Gada’s existing business in two phases.

Phase I, which should be completed by early next year, Gada said, details a 12,000-square-foot garage that will hold up to 18 fuel delivery and tow trucks. The garage will also include a truck washing bay, as well as storage space for the company’s furnace parts and equipment.

Phase II, the timeline of which is still unclear, details a 16,800-square-foot garage for car and truck repairs, and will adjoin the Phase I garage, Gada said.

Additional parking, lining both the proposed and existing buildings, is also planned, as well as a new driveway for trucks to travel in and out of the planned garage.

According to site plans, originally submitted to the town in 2017, the completed building, as well as its driveway and parking spaces, will overlay the area where May’s fire occurred.

Gada added that, besides still needing to tear down one small garage currently being used for storage space, he plans to keep the business’ existing structures intact. Those buildings house both Gada’s businesses and include a newly renovated office space — previously damaged in the fire — as well as the car and truck repair shop and a full-service gas station.

Having already obtained all necessary zoning permits, which included a 200-foot extension allowing for the building's proposed size, Gada has started excavating the land and surveying to determine an exact location for the building.

Gada said he has not yet applied for a building permit and is waiting to see where he will place the proposed building based on the amount of ledge outcrop surveyors find on the property.

After originally proposing the project to town officials in 2017, Gada said he resubmitted site plans in May, a couple weeks after the May 5 fire, knowing it would be paramount to start work before the winter season.

Gada added that the company recently purchased five new oil delivery trucks to add to its fleet, replacing the six lost in May's fire, which saw flames reach as high as 50 feet. Two garages were also destroyed in the blaze.

Nearly 1,600 gallons of fuel inside the six destroyed oil trucks burned off in the fire and an unknown amount of diesel fuel and home heating oil from those trucks spilled onto the property and onto West Main Street, Chris Taylor, East Lyme fire marshal, had said.

Neighbors living near Guy's Oil also reported hearing explosions throughout the fire. Taylor said on the day of the fire that the explosions came from furnace parts, specifically expansion tanks, stored in the garage.

The exact cause of the fire was never determined, "because everything was so badly burnt," Gada said last week. "They think it was an alternator that sparked on one of the oil trucks, but they couldn't tell."

Taylor never returned a call from The Day confirming details of the investigation and had not yet responded to an Freedom of Information Act request filed by Monday's deadline.

“With the fire, it just pushed us to do it, because it’s so much better for the trucks to be undercover, especially in the wintertime with snow,” Gada said, explaining that his business has continued operating by relying on five 1980s-era oil delivery trucks spared from the fire. “And with the snow, it’s really important to have the trucks inside because they have been cleaned off to drive. It’s really a safety precaution for the drivers, too, so they don’t have to get on top of the trucks to shovel the snow off.”

Gada said original inspiration for the project stemmed out of a need to house the company’s five tow trucks, which have always been parked in the lot across the street and have never sat under a garage.

“We were able to keep the oil trucks inside, but there was no room for the tow trucks. And this way, everything should be inside,” he said. “The idea was to get everything under one roof and properly maintain the vehicles.”

Gada said the fire came just weeks after he learned he had a serious heart issue last April. In and out of the hospital since, Gada underwent open heart surgery in June and returned to work Aug. 15. He said during that time, his wife, Donna, also sustained serious injuries after falling twice, breaking her arm and dislocating her shoulder, forcing both to be laid up at home, he said, with Gada trying to line up a contractor for the project.

The morning after the fire, Gada and his wife told The Day that the fire would not keep them from opening shop the very next day.

"We are down. But we are not out," Donna had said.

Expanding on that sentiment last week, Gada said, “Our main function is delivering oil. With the winter season coming upon us, it’s important that we are ready to go. For an oil company, it’s important that our customers know that. We are ready and we aren't going anywhere. We are here to stay.”

m.biekert@theday.com