Flames

Firefighters battling a fire in a two-story rowhouse in Northwest Baltimore early Saturday found the body of an adult male who apparently suffered from burns and smoke inhalation, according to the Baltimore Fire Department. In a statement, a spokesman said the first fire trucks arrived at the house in the 5000 block of Queensberry Ave. in upper Park Heights at 3:22 a.m. and found heavy smoke pouring out of a basement window. The spokesman said that firefighters had a difficult time getting into the rowhouse because of security bars on the doors and windows.

Firefighters found the remains of two unidentified people inside a Glen Burnie building that caught fire Wednesday morning. The fire broke out at about 9:30 a.m. in a commercial building in the 300 block of Arundel Corporation Road, where crews reported flames through the roof causing the fire to go to a second alarm, fire officials said. About 60 firefighters were able to get the fire under control in about an hour when fire officials learned that two people might be inside the building, officials said.

Two men were seriously burned at a northeast Baltimore County party when someone sprayed a form of fuel on a bonfire, according to the Baltimore County Fire Department. Fire investigators said a group of people were standing around a fire pit in a driveway of a home in the 11500 block of Wallace Drive at about 3:15 a.m. Sunday when the flames started to die down. Witnesses later told police that Nicholas Hamel, 20, tried to reignite the fire with nitro fuel, which is used to power remote control cars.

The decision by a Florida pastor to call off plans to burn copies of the Quran on the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks averts an incident that would surely have harmed the United States in the view of Muslims worldwide — and would likely have put American troops at greater risk in Afghanistan. But the Rev. Terry Jones' acquiescence to pressure from everywhere from the White House to the Vatican does not erase the growing stain of Islamophobia in this country.

How does hosting a World Cup sound to you, Baltimore? Sound like a pretty good idea? Bring a lot of visitors to the city? Generate a lot of ka-ching for hotels, bars and restaurants? Then where were you Saturday night, when a crowd of just 36,569 showed up at M&T Bank Stadium for the big soccer friendly between Manchester City and Inter Milan? Understand this isn't to say a crowd that size is anything to sneeze at. Forty thousand is fine for, like, a big dog show.

A fiery, late-night accident in Lutherville left a man dead after his Volvo station wagon left the road at high speed, crashed and burst into flames, Baltimore County police said Friday. The car was registered to a 45-year-old Phoenix man, but police were awaiting a positive identification of his remains from dental records that were being provided to the medical examiner's office in Baltimore. Lt. Robert McCullough, a spokesman for the Baltimore County police, said the 2007 Volvo XC70 was traveling rapidly northward on Dulaney Valley Road after midnight when it "failed to negotiate a curve" near Pot Spring Road and struck three boulders, a road sign and then a tree.

Maryland advocates for a ban on a toxic flame retardant that accumulates in the environment and has been linked to cancer and brain development problems intend to pursue an earlier phaseout of the chemical than the timeline currently spelled out in a recent federal agreement. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced last month that the three largest manufacturers and importers of decabromodiphenyl ether, also known as decaBDE, had negotiated a pact to phase out the chemical, used in upholstery, mattresses, electronics and more, by 2013.

- The political war over the failed Christmas Day bombing of a U.S. airliner showed no signs of abating Wednesday as leaders of both parties escalated their attacks, employing fiery rhetoric in assessing blame for the Detroit incident. Former Vice President Dick Cheney led a Republican offensive to assail President Barack Obama's leadership on national security, charging that the American people are less safe because Cheney believes Obama is "pretending" that the United States is not at war with terrorists.

When the moment came yesterday to honor the Baltimore officer who rescued a pit bull that had been set on fire 10 days ago, sparking a furor over animal cruelty and a reward that now tops $23,000, the city's police commissioner didn't credit her training, her bosses or her colleagues. He praised Officer Syreeta Teel's parents, Thurman and Deborah Evon, who he noted instilled values that transcend any training the Police Department can provide. "Officer Teel didn't need us to teach her to be a good person," said Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III at the City Hall ceremony that included the officer, her mother, father and sister and a bevy of city leaders.