Firefighters

A man fled from police and crashed his car blocks away Thursday, leaving him trapped in the burning vehicle after it rolled over, Baltimore police said. The man, whom police did not identify, was in "very critical" condition a few hours after the crash, which happened at noon at the intersection of Pratt and Fulton streets. As of Thursday afternoon, the man was in surgery at the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center, police said. He faces a "litany" of traffic charges and a charge for possession of narcotics police say they found in his car. Police said an officer driving in the opposite direction spotted the man driving through a stop sign at the intersection of Ashton and Smallwood streets.

Three firefighters were injured in a fire at a row house in West Baltimore on Wednesday morning, according to the Baltimore Fire Department. The firefighters were each burned in the one-alarm blaze in the 2100 block of W. North Avenue, said Chief Kevin Cartwright, a department spokesman. One firefighter suffered a first-degree burn to his face and ear, Cartwright said. Another suffered a second-degree burn to the left side of his face, and the third suffered a second-degree burn to his right cheek, he said.

A firefighter was injured battling a two-alarm fire at a debris-filled, single-family home in Northwest Baltimore on Monday morning when he fell through a floor into the home's basement, according to the Baltimore Fire Department. Firefighters responded just before 9 a.m. to the home in the 4200 block of Groveland Avenue, in the city's West Arlington neighborhood, and found heavy smoke, said Chief Kevin Cartwright, a department spokesman. When firefighters entered the home, they determined the fire had originated in the basement but had “extended into the walls” and was traveling into the first and second floors as well, Cartwright said.

A woman was found injured in a Middle River home that caught fire on Sunday shortly after noon, Baltimore County fire officials said. Firefighters who arrived at the home, in the 600 block of Kingston Road, found fire showing on the second floor and in the attic, officials said. The woman, whom the fire department did not identify, was taken to Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center. The extent of her injuries were unknown as of about 4 p.m. Sunday. The fire was under control in about an hour.

Nine residents living in two townhouses were displaced early Saturday morning after a fire broke out and extended up to the roof. Howard County Department responded to the fire in 9300 block of Indian Camp about 4 a.m. Firefighters brought the two-alarm fire under control within an hour and no one was seriously hurt. One firefighter suffer a minor leg injury and was treated at Howard County General Hospital. The Red Cross is working to assist residents who have been displaced. Howard County Fire Marshals were investigating to determine the cause of the fire.

Federal prosecutors have taken on the case of a Baltimore City firefighter accused of running a prostitution ring, alleging that he lured women to the city to work for him from as far away as Texas and South Dakota. Prosecutors say Jamar Simmons, 30, and his partner, Franklin Roosevelt Coit, 34, had been bringing women into Maryland since 2009. In March 2012, Simmons found a woman online, identified in the indictment only as C.F., and with Coit arranged for her to be brought from South Dakota to work as a prostitute, prosecutors allege.

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake called Monday for "bold reforms" to fix a looming financial shortfall, including requiring more city workers to contribute to their retirement fund, charging residents for trash collection, asking firefighters to work longer hours and cutting the city workforce by 10 percent over time. In return, she said, the city could use the savings to raise employee salaries and cut property taxes by 22 percent - 50 cents per $100 of assessed value - over the next decade.

Fifty Baltimore County firefighters battled a house fire in the Hampton area on Sunday afternoon, the county Fire Marshal's office said. None of the seven family members living in the home were injured, officials said. Firefighters were called to the scene at about 12:40 p.m. and found heavy fire on the second floor of the home in the 1500 block of Providence Road. It took about an hour to get the fire under control, said Bruce Schultz, a captain at the Office of the Fire Marshal, in an email.

Five firefighters suffered minor injuries Monday evening when a building collapsed during a four-alarm fire in West Baltimore. The fire began at and significantly damaged a three-story brick building and adjacent lumberyard in the 600 block of Pennsylvania Ave. called Penn Lumber, fire officials said. A deli next door also was damaged. Nearly 30 fire firetrucks and 100 firefighters were called in to battle the fire in Seton Hill and were still at the scene at 8:30 p.m. Conditions in the building worsened rapidly once firefighters responded in the late afternoon, city fire spokesman Chief Kevin Cartwright said.

Four firefighters and three civilians were injured early Wednesday morning when a tractor trailer and a fire engine collided and flipped over a dividing wall on Interstate 495 in Prince George's County, according to fire officials. The accident temporarily closed all lanes of the highway in both directions as emergency responders reached the scene and began treating the injured, and some lanes remained closed hours later. About 2:50 a.m., the fire engine was responding to another accident on the inner loop of the Capital Beltway just south of Route 50 when it was rear-ended by the tractor trailer, said Chief Alicia Francis, a Prince George's Fire Department spokeswoman.