Baltimore Fire Department

Belair Road has been closed in both directions for more than an hour this evening after a southbound vehicle went airborne after striking an SUV, killing an unidentified man and injuring two others, Baltimore Fire Department spokesman Kevin Cartwright said. The accident took place about 3:30 p.m. at the intersection of Ravenwood Avenue when the driver of the southbound car, described as a coupe, crossed into oncoming traffic, Cartwright said. One man in the coupe was pronounced dead on the scene and another was taken to Johns Hopkins Hospital with what appeared to be non-life-threatening injuries.

Seven people were transported to local hospitals after a carbon monoxide leak in a Northwest Baltimore apartment made them sick, the Baltimore Fire Department reported. Department spokesman Chief Kevin Cartwright said rescue crews responded to a report of a strange odor in an apartment in the 400 block of Edgewood Road. He said four people were taken to University of Maryland Hospital and three to Johns Hopkins Hospital — all with injuries that were not life-threatening. "People were complaining of headaches," Cartwright said.

A man died and another was critically injured early Tuesday when a vehicle overturned in Southwest Baltimore, according to city police and fire officials. The accident occurred about 2:50 a.m. in the 200 block of South Hilton St., near Frederick Avenue, just west of the Mount Olive Cemetery. The cause of the accident was under investigation, but authorities said the 2004 Audi sedan was found on its roof with the driver-side door crushed. Chief Kevin Cartwright, a spokesman for the Baltimore Fire Department, said the driver was pinned in the car, unconscious and suffering from an open skull fracture.

As of 9 a.m. Monday, traffic was slow on Red Run Boulevard and Owings Mills Boulevard in Baltimore County, due to an accident. An accident was slowing traffic at Liberty Road and Oakland Mills Road in Sykesville. Traffic was slow at Fulton Avenue and Pratt Street due to fire department activity. Two women jumped from the second floor of a burning rowhouse, and one may have thrown a child out of a window and into the arms of a bystander, according to the Baltimore Fire Department.

Two women jumped from the second floor of a burning rowhouse Monday morning, and one may have thrown an infant out of a window and into the arms of a bystander, according to the Baltimore Fire Department. The fire was reported shortly before 6 a.m. in the 300 block of S. Fulton Ave., in the Carrollton Ridge neighborhood in Southwest Baltimore. Fire Capt. Roman Clark said the first and second floors were engulfed in flames when firefighters arrived. Clark said two women jumped from a second floor.

Baltimore firefighters responded to a small bedroom fire Sunday afternoon in a second-floor apartment on the 2600 block of Loyola Southway in the Greenspring neighborhood. The fire was under control by 2 p.m. and did not spread beyond the apartment, said a Baltimore Fire Department spokesman, Kevin Cartwright, who added that the occupant of the apartment, who was not identified, refused to leave the premises. "There were no injuries, and the cause of the fire remains under investigation," Cartwright said.

An overnight fire in the unit block of East 25th Street injured one person, according to the Baltimore Fire Department. Firefighters responded to the three-story building, which is occupied by a Big Boyz Bail Bonds company, around 2:40 a.m. and discovered a blaze in the basement, officials said. The fire spread through the duct work to the first, second and third floors, officials said. One person escaped the building uninjured, but firefighters had to rescue a second person, officials said.

A three-vehicle crash that included a city school bus sent five people to the hospital Monday afternoon, according to fire officials. The cause of the crash, which occurred about 4 p.m. in the 600 block of Patapsco Ave. in Southwest Baltimore, was unclear, Chief Kevin Cartwright, a spokesman for the Baltimore Fire Department, said Monday night. Cartwright did not know whether any children were injured, though he said the bus "didn't suffer the brunt of the damages. " Dispatches emailed to The Baltimore Sun from the Firefighters Union Local 734 said two people were extricated from vehicles and that a man and a woman, both 22, were taken to the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center.

The headline on The Sun's article about promotions within the Baltimore Fire Department ("Two top fire jobs to blacks," Nov. 16) was disgraceful. It should have been, "Two top fire jobs to most qualified. " Since when is the color of one's skin a "qualification" for anything? Racism in this country will never disappear as long as it is used as a prerequisite for any type of employment. Shame on the writer of that headline. D. Pazourek, Sparks

Let me get this straight, a black firefighter serving in a position created for him to lead recruitment efforts to hire more minorities like him, is claiming racism? ("Two top fire jobs to blacks," Nov. 16.) Well, he is correct, that system of selective racial recruitment couldn't be more racist, but in a haze of politically correct mumbo-jumbo, that glaring fact is taboo! On top of this, the other black deputy is promoted to another non-existent position, cut during fiscal cuts years back!