Anne Arundel County firefighters fought three building blazes within six hours Saturday night.
"The guys took a beating," said Lt. Frank Fennell, a spokesman for the department. "It was a long night."
The fires shut down an Annapolis restaurant, destroyed a vacant house near Bella Vista and damaged a home in Riva. The residents of the house in Riva were displaced, and two firefighters there went to a hospital for treatment of minor injuries.
The fires caused a total of almost $400,000 in damage, Fire Department officials said. The blazes were not related, they said.
The first fire occurred in Heroes restaurant in the first block of Riverview Ave. in Annapolis about 6 p.m. The blaze was largely confined to the basement and was under control by 6:50 p.m., Fennell said.
The restaurant sustained nearly $200,000 in damage and has been declared unsafe. Fire inspectors don't know what caused the blaze, and the restaurant will not reopen until it is inspected by building and health officials, Fennell said.
The second fire began about 11 p.m. in an abandoned building in the 6900 block of Solomons Island Road, near the community of Bella Vista. By the time firefighters arrived, the three-story wood structure was almost entirely ablaze and about an acre of grass around the building was also burning, Fennell said.
Firefighters were able to contain the grass fire by 11:45 p.m., but the building burned to the ground. Fire inspectors were unsure what caused the blaze, but the vacant building had been used by vagrants in the past, Fennell said. Because the building had neither heat nor electricity, inspectors consider the blaze suspicious, Fennell said. Damage was estimated at about $40,000.
A third fire was reported about 11:40 p.m. in the 100 block of Island View Road, Riva, in a single-family house without smoke alarms. Three people were sleeping in the house and escaped when they were awakened by one of their dogs.
"Had it not been for the dog, it could have been a much more tragic situation," Fennell said.
Two dogs and two cats died in the fire, he said.
The three people in the house, Marcy Beth Wilt, 46, Mauri Fischer, 21, and Mackenzie Fischer, 2, were able to escape the blaze, which firefighters brought under control by 12:15 a.m.
Wilt was treated for smoke inhalation at Anne Arundel Medical Center.
The home sustained about $150,000 in damage and is uninhabitable, officials said.
Because firefighters were still wet from fighting earlier blazes, firefighter Michael Hahn, 25, was burned when his damp gear became too hot and started to steam, causing a minor burn on his knee.
Firefighter Andy Whitehead, 35, was burned on a small patch of exposed skin on his face. Both were treated at Anne Arundel Medical Center and released.
