Baltimore County Fire

A cigarette was the apparent cause of a two-alarm fire last night that prompted the evacuation of several residents of a Catonsville apartment building. No injuries were reported. The fire was reported at 6:33 p.m. at the Nunnery Lane Apartments in the first block of Merrill Road, a nearly block-long two-story brick building containing 16 units. The blaze caused extensive damage to a second-floor apartment at No. 14 Merrill Road. The 33-year-old woman who lives in that apartment was evacuated, as were several families in adjoining units, said Battalion Chief Bruce Kesting.

A three-story frame house partially collapsed during a one-alarm fire last night in Glen Arm in northeast Baltimore County, but fire officials reported no injuries.Neighbors reported the fire at 6: 39 p.m. at a house in the 12000 block of Glen Arm Road, said acting Lt. Tim Robinson of the Baltimore County Fire Department.Battalion Chief Mark Hubbard said he wasn't sure whether the homeowner was at home when the fire started, but she was staying with a neighbor afterward."There was heavy fire on the rear of the house , and the fire was raging on the first and third floor," Hubbard said.

One man died in a single-dwelling fire yesterday morning, Baltimore County fire officials said.The blaze, which was reported in a midblock rowhouse in the 8300 block of Hillendale Road shortly before noon, was brought under control within 20 minutes, said Baltimore County Fire Department Battalion Chief Mark Hubbard.The man, whose name had not been released by authorities as of yesterday evening, was found inside the front door by firefighters when they entered the house, Hubbard said."The fire is still under investigation," Hubbard said.

Because of incorrect information supplied by the Baltimore County Fire Department, an article in yesterday's Maryland section gave the wrong location for a fire in Towson. The fire was at 608 Bosley Ave., in a building occupied by Towson Realty.The Sun regrets the errors.Pub Date: 6/02/98

Baltimore County fire officials are investigating an arson that destroyed a Parkville High School portable classroom early yesterday."We have a reason to believe that someone set a fire to the classroom," said Mark Hubbard, spokesman for the Baltimore County Fire Department.Firefighters quickly contained the one-alarm fire that broke out in the trailer in the 2600 block of Putty Hill Ave. about 5 a.m.No one was inside, and the fire did not spread to the main building.The classroom, which accommodated 25 high school students, had $9,000 in damage, Hubbard said.

Police have arrested one man and were seeking another in a shooting and robbery that left a tap dancer paralyzed.Detective Corey Alston said John C. Rogers, 30, of the 600 block of Pitcher St. was arrested Thursday on a warrant charging him with robbing and shooting James Branford Pace, 27, of New York, a dancer in "Jolson: The Musical" at the Lyric Theatre.Alston said Pace had walked from the theater and was outside the Tremont Plaza Hotel at St. Paul Place and Saratoga Street about 11: 30 p.m. Nov. 27 when two men, one with a handgun, robbed him of $20 and a backpack.

A Parkville woman and her husband were given probation before judgment Thursday in Baltimore County District Court in Towson after being convicted of running an illegal day care center with fire code violations.The charges against Diane L. and Melvin Smith stemmed from a fire in their home in April that caused minor injuries to six of the seven children being cared for there.Assistant State's Attorney Jason G. League said the Smiths each were fined $200 for fire code violations. Diane Smith also was fined $250 for operating an unlicensed day care center.

A two-alarm fire at Bethlehem Steel Corp. injured three workers yesterday and caused extensive damage to machinery in the tin mill at Sparrows Point, Baltimore County fire officials and a company spokesman said.The fire was reported at 1: 35 a.m. and brought under control about 3 a.m.Two mill workers sustained minor injuries, and a third suffered chest pains after the fire started on a chromic acid line. They were treated at the Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center in Baltimore and released.

The Baltimore County Fire Department is getting its third new chief in less than two years, as Paul H. Reincke returns to the ranks of the retired to make way for a younger man.John F. O'Neill, 50, a deputy chief for more than a decade and a county firefighter since 1972, will succeed Reincke next month -- with the expected approval of the County Council. The job carries an annual salary of $103,000.O'Neill, whose promotion was announced yesterday by County Executive C. A. Dutch Ruppersberger, said that better racial relations among the department's 1,200 emergency personnel will be a priority.

A tanker truck hauling gasoline overturned and exploded last night as it entered Interstate 83 from the Beltway, killing the driver, forcing Riderwood residents from their homes and filling North Baltimore with smoke.The truck crashed about 8 p.m. as it entered the northbound ramp of I-83 from the eastbound Inner Loop lanes of Interstate 695 near the 8200 block of Jeffers Circle in Riderwood, Baltimore County fire officials said.The driver's name was not released; no one else was hurt in the accident.

Suspect, 29, charged in beating of homeless man A homeless man was recovering from severe head injuries after an unprovoked beating Sunday in Westminster, according to the Carroll County Sheriff's Office. A 29-year-old man was charged in the attack. Authorities found George Herbert Smith Jr. semiconscious and lying on a pile of garbage at a makeshift campsite near Routes 27 and 140. He was in serious condition Monday at Maryland Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore. Troy Thomas Haller of no fixed address was charged with first- and second-degree assault, disorderly intoxication and reckless endangerment, according to the sheriff's office.

Four-alarm fire forces Cockeysville residents to flee A 4-alarm fire late Thursday night extensively damaged at least one three-story garden-style Cockeysville apartment building and forced the evacuation of numerous residents, said a spokesman for the Baltimore County Fire Department. No injuries were reported. The fire, reported at 11:40 p.m. at the Milestone Manor Apartments in the 200 block of St. David Court, went to four alarms in a matter of minutes and brought firefighters from at least a dozen stations.

Danelle England-Dansicker, Baltimore County's first career female firefighter, died Tuesday of complications from autoimmune disease at Johns Hopkins Hospital. The Pikesville resident was 52. "She blazed a trail for a lot of people," said Baltimore County Fire Chief John Hohman. "She earned the respect of those you would have never expected to accept a woman. She made it easier for us to diversify this department." Anida Danelle England was born in Baltimore and raised on Milford Mill Road.

Four people were injured, including one who suffered serious burns, in an electrical fire Saturday afternoon at Pharmaceutics International Inc. in Hunt Valley, Baltimore County fire authorities said. Fire officials responded to a call just before 1 p.m. for a building fire in the 10800 block of Gilroy Road near Beaver Dam Road, authorities said. Baltimore County Fire Department Lt. James Artis said four electricians were working inside a power room when an electrical short occurred. One suffered third-degree burns to the upper body.

Baltimore health officials declare influenza alert With the number of positive influenza tests rising sharply in the city, Baltimore health officials declared a flu alert yesterday. "We're really seeing sustained transmission of flu in Baltimore. Now is the time to protect yourself," said the city's health commissioner, Dr. Joshua M. Sharfstein. Sentinel hospitals reported that 12 percent of flu tests last week came back positive, more than twice the rate for the previous week. There have been no deaths, but the Johns Hopkins Children's Center is treating a teenager who is critically ill with flu. "This is not just the sniffles.

Elaina Leonard stood in a driveway slippery with fire-hose ice and looked with disbelief at her destroyed apartment. "I don't have anything now," she said, wiping the tears from her cheeks. "I'm looking right through my living room. There's nothing there, not even a couch. Everything you work for is where you live. I have to start all over again." Leonard, 22, was one of about 80 residents displaced by a four-alarm fire that roared through part of the Berkshires at Satyr Hill apartment complex in Carney shortly after 1 a.m. yesterday, wiping out 24 units and drawing 150 firefighters.

Fire puts boy in hospital and displaces others A two-alarm fire caused by an unattended candle sent a 3-year-old boy to the hospital yesterday and displaced about 10 residents of a Randallstown garden apartment complex, Baltimore County fire officials said. In addition, a man and two youths were slightly injured, officials said. Firefighters were dispatched to the Gardenview Apartments in the 8500 block of Glen Michael Lane about 10 a.m. after callers had reported people trapped on the third floor and a child trapped in the basement, according to officials.

A federal grand jury indicted a former employee of a Baltimore County law firm and accused him of stealing $1 million from his employer and then setting the offices on fire to cover his tracks, prosecutors said yesterday. George Michael Perez, 32, of Dundalk faces wire fraud, arson and money laundering charges in connection with alleged thefts from Wittstadt & Wittstadt P.A., and the three-alarm fire at the firm's former offices at 40 S. Dundalk Ave., according to the indictment. A message left with Mark H. Wittstadt, the firm's managing partner, was not immediately returned yesterday afternoon.

A two-alarm fire damaged two apartments in a Baltimore County building complex yesterday morning and sent one occupant to a hospital to be treated for smoke inhalation, according to a fire official. The blaze was first reported about 5:45 a.m. in a third-story apartment at the Kenilworth at Charles Apartments in the 1100 block of Donington Circle, between Joppa Road and the Baltimore Beltway, west of Towson. The fire started on a kitchen stove in an unattended pan of cooking oil, fire officials said.

One firefighter was injured yesterday afternoon while he and more than 50 others battled a stubborn single-alarm fire in the Caveswood community near Garrison, a Baltimore County Fire Department spokesman said. Reported at 4:40 p.m. in the 2900 block of Caves Road, the fire went through the roof of the brick rancher. Lt. John Cromwell, the spokesman, said an Owings Mills Volunteer Fire Company member suffered a wrist injury and was treated at Sinai Hospital. The fire, which is under investigation, was declared under control at 7:06 p.m.