Deputy State Fire

A two-alarm fire last Wednesday that heavily damaged two antiques shops in the historic section of Main Street in Ellicott City was intentionally set, a deputy state fire marshal said today.The blaze at Ellicott's Country Store, 8190 Main St., was set on the second floor of the building, said Robert Thomas, deputy state fire marshal. The building pre-dates the Civil War.The fire spread next door to Heirlooms Too and caused additional damage, Mr. Thomas said.The total damage was estimated at $250,000.

A shed and two abandoned cars were destroyed by a fire in Street Tuesday morning, the Maryland State Fire Marshal's Office said. The shed, in the 3700 block of Bay Road, was occupied by a man, Dannie Ellis, when it accidentally caught fire at about 9:05 a.m., according to the notice of investigation from the Fire Marshal's Office. "An extension cord was spliced into the Romex wire located at the base of the shed," the notice of investigation states. "This splice ignited nearby combustibles, extending and eventually consuming the shed.

Three men accused of setting fire to the Gamber area home of Russell and Carolyn Brown because of an argument between two sisters at a funeral in Martinsburg, W.Va., were arrested Thursday by a deputy state fire marshal.Walter G. Mitchell, 38, of the first block of Chase St., Westminster, remained at the Carroll County Detention Center on Friday night in lieu of $75,000 bond, according to District Court documents. Dennis M. Sorrentino, 20, of the 800 block Old Washington Road, was being held on $50,000 bond.

Two men were arrested yesterday by state fire marshals in connection with the soda bottle bombs that damaged a KFC restaurant in Eldersburg on July 20, authorities said. Bryan Patrick Kaylor, 19, of Woodbine and Dontea Francois, 20, of Baltimore, both employees of the KFC, were being held at the Carroll County Detention Center awaiting bail review hearings. Both men are charged with two counts each of manufacturing and possessing destructive devices, said Faron Taylor, deputy state fire marshal.

CHESTER -- Fire destroyed three 50-foot yachts docked at a marina in this Queen Anne's County town early yesterday. Investigators estimated total damage at $750,000.Deputy State Fire Marshal W. Faron Taylor said three other boats and the boathouse at the Piney Narrows Marina were damaged.Firefighter Robert Feitz, 43, slipped on ice and fell from one of the yachts, fracturing his ribs when he landed on the pier.Mr. Taylor said the cold weather and ice along the 300-foot pier hampered the 50 firefighters.

Sixteen volunteer fire companies, including Union Bridge from Carroll County, assisted Walkersville firefighters in Frederick County at 2: 57 p.m. on Monday, responding to a five-alarm barn fire in the 9100 block of Stauffer Road.The blaze, which caused an estimated $100,000 in damage, was brought under control in 90 minutes, said W. Feron Taylor, deputy state fire marshal.The fire was ruled accidental, the result of spontaneous combustion inside one of hundreds of bales and large rolls of hay being stored in the barn, which is owned by Auburn Farms, a limited partnership, Taylor said.

County to begin paving work on Old Westminster Road The Carroll County Department of Public Works has announced that paving on Old Westminster Road will begin tomorrow. The paving will begin on the east side of Route 91 and end at Route 140. Information: 410-386-2171. Haiti, Dominican Republic shipped relief supplies The Brethren Service Center in New Windsor has shipped $225,000 worth of emergency relief supplies to Haiti and the Dominican Republic to help the victims of flash floods.

In Harford County Two victims identified in mobile home fire BEL AIR -- Two Harford County residents killed yesterday in a mobile home fire were identified by deputy state fire marshals. Karl Randall Devine, 46, and Sharon Ann Devine, 48, of the 1600 block Schucks Road in Bel Air were in the home, along with Janette Ayers, 73, when the fire broke out in the living room about 6:30 p.m., said Deputy State Fire Marshal Joseph B. Zurolo Jr. Ayers was able to escape the mobile home without injury, Zurolo said.

A 16-year-old Baltimore County youth was arrested yesterday on a warrant charging him with setting the Jan. 30 fire that destroyed First Baptist Church of Fruitland in Wicomico County and caused $175,000 in damage, a deputy state fire marshal said.W. Faron Taylor, the deputy state fire marshal, said the youth was arrested at his Dundalk home, charged as a juvenile with arson and remanded to J. DeWeese Carter Youth Center in Chestertown, pending a court hearing.Taylor said the youth was a former resident of Fruitland and was a member of the church when the fire occurred.

A 19-year-old Cecil County man suffered cuts and burns to his face early yesterday morning when a pipe bomb he was making in his home exploded, according to a deputy state fire marshal.Raymond Charles Lupfer jumped from an ambulance as he was being taken to Union Hospital in Elkton. He was arrested several hours later at 6: 30 a.m. by Cecil County sheriff's deputies, according to W. Faron Taylor, the deputy state fire marshal.Lupfer, of the 100 block of Halls Lane in Chesapeake City, has been charged with manufacturing a pipe bomb, a felony.

Higher education Morgan State raises $31 million, tops goal Morgan State University has raised $31 million during its first capital campaign, exceeding its initial goal of $25 million over six years, the school announced. The money will be used primarily for scholarships and need-based financial aid at the historically black university, officials said. Funds will also go to athletic programs and facilities maintenance. "Our students regularly redefine excellence, and this campaign to provide necessary resources for our students is just the beginning of an opportunity for us to redefine access" to a college education, said Morgan President Earl S. Richardson.

When firefighters discovered the source of the smoke minutes after entering the Carroll County apartment, they found foam pillows and clothing burning in a bedroom. The flames might have taken 15 seconds to extinguish, the smoke, 15 minutes to clear. But within hours, fire officials had zeroed in on what had caused the blaze while the apartment's residents were away: a 9-year-old boy. The Mount Airy child is not the youngest caught intentionally setting a fire, fire officials and psychologists say, nor are juvenile fire-setters rare.

A two-alarm fire Wednesday night at a Bel Air apartment complex displaced nearly two dozen families and caused an estimated $500,000 damage, fire officials said. The blaze broke out above the third-floor ceiling of the apartment building in the 700 block of Country Village Drive when an electric service line overheated and wood framing caught fire. The flames spread through the unoccupied attic space before breaking through the roof, said Deputy State Fire Marshal W. Faron Taylor. The two rooms below where the fire broke out were unoccupied, but 22 families in the building and an adjoining building that shares electrical service were displaced and being assisted by the Red Cross, Taylor said.

Three Washington County teenagers died in a fire early yesterday that destroyed much of a nearly 200-year-old house in Western Maryland. The victims were at the home of a friend, said a spokesman for the fire marshal's office. The names of the dead were withheld pending confirmation of their identities, said Joseph Zurola, a deputy state fire marshal. Autopsies are scheduled today. Damage was estimated at $100,000. The house had smoke detectors, said Zurola. The fire, reported at 5:15 a.m., began on the second floor of a stone house built in the late 1800s on Mount Hebron Road in Keedysville.

Farmers' market geared to WIC coupon recipients The Carroll County Health Department Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program, with the Carroll County Department of Economic Development, will hold a farmers' market tomorrow. The market will be held from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. in a designated lot behind the Health Department and will coincide with the distribution of the WIC coupon checks for the Farmers' Market Nutrition Program. Carroll County farms will have stands to sell fruits and vegetables.

More than 100 firefighters battled a four-alarm fire in Frostburg early yesterday that burned out the former Lyric Theatre, a three-story building on East Main Street that housed a restaurant, clothing store and nine apartments, authorities said. The fire was reported about 6:20 a.m., and declared under control about five hours later. Damage was estimated at more than $1 million. The theater closed about 40 years ago. The building was occupied by Gandalf's Restaurant and Pub and Warehouse War, a store that had opened just a day earlier, said W. Faron Taylor, deputy state fire marshal.

Investigators' efforts to pinpoint the cause of a weekend fire at a Harford County nightclub were stymied yesterday when fire erupted again shortly after 3 p.m., a state fire official said yesterday. "We'd just completed a briefing; we were reassembling and preparing to go inside" when a hidden fire broke out under a section of collapsed roof, said Deputy State Fire Marshal W. Faron Taylor. No one was inside the building at 2607 Belair Road when the second fire started, about 36 hours after firefighters first responded.

A 48-year-old handyman staying in a Frederick County house he was renovating was killed last night when a fast-moving one-alarm fire raced through the dwelling.Deputy State Fire Marshal Bob Thomas said the man was pronounced dead about 9 p.m. The victim was not identified pending notification of his family in Virginia.The man was working on the frame house in the 6900 block of Old New Londontown Road west of Mount Airy when a fire broke out in the kitchen, Thomas said.The blaze quickly spread through the two-story structure.