Fire Officials

The day before a fire cadet died in a live-fire training exercise in a city rowhouse, another cadet and a fire lieutenant were injured in a similar controlled burn in East Baltimore, fire officials acknowledged yesterday. It took several days for the Fire Department to confirm the earlier exercise, and a spokesman declined to provide additional details. A recruit, Daniel Nott, suffered a first-degree burn on his cheek and a firefighter, Lt. Sam Darby, was burned on his hand, fire officials said.

Man dies of wounds in Northwest shooting An unidentified man who was shot several times late Wednesday in Northwest Baltimore died of his injuries early yesterday, city police said. Agent Donny Moses, a police spokesman, said officers received a report of a man lying in the front yard of a residence in the 3100 block of Artaban Place about 11:40 p.m. The man had suffered multiple gunshot wounds and was taken to Sinai Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 12:16 a.m., Moses said. Police have not identified a suspect in the killing and knew of no motive, Moses said.

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 Memorial Day barbecue ignited a blaze that severely damaged two townhouses in White Marsh yesterday and sent two firefighters to hospitals with minor injuries and heat exhaustion, the Baltimore County Fire Department said. The two-alarm fire started about 1 p.m. in the 5000 block of Kemsley Court when a propane grill on a third-floor deck caught fire, exploded and sent flames onto a neighboring house, fire officials said. It took 24 firefighters, eight engines and three trucks about an hour and a half to quell the flames, fire officials said.

A 76-year-old man apparently pushed his friend out a second-story window of a burning West Baltimore rowhouse early yesterday and then collapsed and died, fire officials and a witness said.The woman fell onto a porch roof, injuring her knee, and was treated at a downtown hospital and released.James Lee, a retired construction worker who had moved into the house in 1991, was pronounced dead at the scene. An autopsy is planned."He got the lady out, but he didn't make it out," said Richard England, 70, who lived on the third floor and escaped down a rear fire escape of the rowhouse in the 1300 block of Edmondson Ave."

A three-alarm fire destroyed two East Baltimore rowhouses and damaged a third early yesterday, leaving five people homeless and causing an estimated $124,000 in damage, city fire officials said.The blaze that broke out shortly after midnight in the 1600 block of E. Preston St. was the third significant fire in Baltimore in a three-hour time span, keeping firefighters busy across the city.A three-alarm fire about 9 p.m. Monday damaged an apartment building in Northwest Baltimore and left at least 20 people homeless.

Two men killed in a Harford County fire early Sunday were identified yesterday by state fire officials, who continued to investigate the blaze.Mohammed Afzal, 42, and Riaz Hussain, 44, died of smoke inhalation from the fire at the apartment they shared in the 1600 block of Denise Drive in Forest Hill, fire officials said. The men were from Pakistan and worked at a gas station.The fire began at 5: 30 a.m. and forced one resident of the three-story, six-apartment building to jump from her apartment, breaking an arm. Damage to the building was estimated at $400,000.

An explosion that tore through a hazardous materials plant in Southwest Baltimore early Sunday occurred after a fire had started inside the building and might have been the result of a fractured natural gas line, city fire officials said yesterday.The investigation into the two-alarm fire at Safety-Kleen that reduced a two-story structure to rubble, but caused no injuries, continues. Fire officials said they are awaiting results of lab tests to help determine a cause.But Battalion Chief Hector L. Torres, a Fire Department spokesman, said heat from the fire caused joists to expand, leading the roof to collapse.

Carroll's 14 volunteer fire companies will make a leap into the future with new computers and training to modernize fire and emergency medical service reporting, authorities said.County officials are supplying the Firemen's Association with one computer terminal and four software modules to be given to each fire company, allowing the stations to connect electronically to the emergency services training center in Westminster. The software will enable the volunteer companies to track data that must be reported monthly to state fire officials.

FURTHER proof of resilience among merchants on Ellicott City's fire-devastated Main Street comes now in response to the finding that careless smoking was the probable cause. Few of the businessmen are calling for the smoker's head.Seventeen-year-old Matthew Reisner reported the fire in the first place, helped lead an elderly tenant to safety and later acknowledged that his smoking may have started it all.His boss praised his work ethic and said he wouldn't hesitate to re-hire him.Homespun virtues and stoic acceptance must merge now with community resolve to reduce the risk of another catastrophic fire.

Baltimore County Fire Department officials continue to investigate a four-alarm fire that extensively damaged a Cockeysville apartment building late Thursday. No injuries were reported in the blaze, which caused about $900,000 worth of damage and forced the evacuation of 33 families, according to fire officials and the American Red Cross of Central Maryland. The fire, reported at 11:40 p.m. at the Hampton 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, fire officials said.

Fire officials will continue today investigating the cause of a four-alarm fire at two Randallstown apartment buildings that displaced 36 people from their homes Sunday night. The fire, which was reported about 9 p.m., caused extensive damage to the Marion Square Apartments in the 4600 block of Horizon Circle near Rolling Road. During the fire, a roof fell in on one of the two-story brick buildings, which then caused the floors below it to collapse, Division Chief Michael Robinson said.

Two people died in an early-morning fire Friday at an apartment in rural northern Baltimore County, authorities said. Baltimore County fire crews received a report of a fire, but without an address, in Upperco. Firefighters who searched the area found the fire at a home in the 17100 block of Pleasant Meadow Road, officials said. The 105-year-old home had been divided into two apartments, and one was on fire when crews arrived about 5 a.m., authorities said. Firefighters found a man and a woman on the second floor who had died.

2 die, one hurt in city house fire 2 A woman and child were killed and a man was injured in a fire in East Baltimore on Saturday. Chief Kevin Cartwright, a Fire Department spokesman, said firefighters responded just before 2 a.m. to a fire at a two-story brick rowhouse in the 1400 block of N. Broadway. Officials requested more firefighters and engines as the fire intensified and flames burned through the roof and damaged two adjacent homes, Cartwright said. The fire was under control about an hour later.

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.

As firefighters worked to dampen what was left of a blaze that engulfed an East Baltimore rowhouse yesterday morning, a man with a determined gait swept past the yellow police tape, his eyes darting back and forth in search of someone who could confirm his worst fears. "My baby died?" he screamed, as two men held him back in the driving rain. "My baby died?" The fire broke out at about 10:30 a.m. in the 2000 block of E. Hoffman St. in the city's Broadway East neighborhood, according to fire officials.

A blaze early yesterday in Parkville was started by a discarded cigarette on an outside patio, Baltimore County fire officials said. Fire officials responded to the 2900 block of Aspen Hill Road about 6:30 a.m. for a report of a dwelling fire, and soon after called for a second alarm, authorities said. The fire was under control by 7:30 a.m. The home had working smoke detectors, and occupants of the home had evacuated before firefighters arrived. No injuries were reported, but two homes had internal damage and two other homes were damaged on the outside as a result of the fire.

A two-alarm fire damaged an office building in Govans last night but did not injure anyone, fire officials said. The fire began about 10:15 p.m. in the York-Belvedere Medical Center in the 5800 block of York Road, said Fire Department spokesman Chief Kevin Cartwright. The fire damaged much of the second floor and part of the third. A crack appeared in the exterior of the stone building, which prompted firefighters to evacuate, Cartwright said. No one appeared to be in the building when the fire erupted, Cartwright said.

Baltimore City fire officials are investigating the cause of a four-alarm fire that ripped through a commercial building on Charles Street early yesterday. Firefighters were called to the four-story brick building, at the northwest corner of Charles Street and North Avenue shortly after 3 a.m., officials said. When they arrived, flames were shooting "through the roof," said Fire Department spokesman Chief Kevin Cartwright. Nearly 100 firefighters were called to the scene, Cartwright said.

Beauty shop owner Vickie Egerton said the smell of smoke drew her to Apartment 107 at Eudowood Towers in Towson yesterday. But when she banged on the door, the man inside shooed her away without opening the door. "`Lady, get away from here,'" Egerton recalled the man saying. "`I have a fire in here. Get away.'" Egerton, whose Generations Family Salon is down the hallway from the apartment, said she called the building's office manager and returned to the apartment with an employee. By then, black soot was seeping around the door's edges as she and the employee banged on the door again.