Three Alarm

More than 50 residents of a Middle River apartment complex who escaped a fire over the weekend were being assisted yesterday by American Red Cross officials and others in finding a place to live. Six families were temporarily sheltered at a local motel for two nights, said Red Cross spokeswoman Linnea Anderson. Others, she said, were given temporary homes in vacant apartments elsewhere in the complex or stayed with family or friends. Sunday night, a three-alarm fire spread through 24 apartments at the Commons at White Marsh in the 600 block of Sopwith Drive, Baltimore County fire officials said yesterday.

Annapolis firefighters today were investigating the second three-alarm blaze this week at an apartment complex in the Eastport neighborhood. Fire crews responded to a 5:13 a.m. call at the Watergate Village apartment complex at 620 Americana Drive, according to Battalion Chief Mike Lonergan, a department spokesman. The fire was contained approximately an hour after firefighters arrived on the scene. Two residents and a firefighter were injured in the blaze. The firefighter, who was not immediately identified, was at the end of a hose line when he fell through the floor of a second-story apartment, Lonergan said.

A 32-year-old man died yesterday in an early-morning Randallstown apartment fire that injured three others and forced dozens of trapped residents onto balconies gasping for air, fire officials said. Delano Thomas, who was killed in the three-alarm blaze that began about 4 a.m., lived in a ground-level apartment that was a group home for hearing-impaired adults. Three other men who lived in the home where the fire began were hospitalized, county officials said. About 20 residents of the Woodridge Apartments were rescued by firefighters who took them down from second- and third-story balconies on ladders, said Capt.

County fire officials are investigating the cause of a three-alarm fire that caused minor damage at a vacant grocery store at Southview Shopping Center in Brooklyn Park yesterday afternoon. The blaze was reported about 4:15 p.m. in the vacant building at Hammonds Lane and Ritchie Highway, which had housed several supermarkets over the years. Within 15 minutes, two more alarms were sounded. More than 70 firefighters from nearly a dozen fire stations responded to the scene, said Capt. Michael Cox, a fire department spokesman.

Three people were arrested and charged with setting a fire in a Pikesville apartment building yesterday that left 30 residents homeless and produced 10-foot flames and billowing smoke that was visible for miles. No one was injured in the three-alarm blaze, which began about 9:30 a.m., fire officials said. Baltimore County police said late yesterday that a man and two female juveniles were in custody on arson charges. Their identities were not immediately available. It took about 75 firefighters more than an hour to control the fire, which heavily damaged a three-story building in the Owings Chase complex in the 4400 block of Old Court Road.

Firefighters rescued several residents and animals yesterday afternoon as three-alarm and four-alarm fires ripped through houses in Baltimore, causing extensive damage and leaving dozens of people homeless. Two firefighters suffered minor burns in a four-alarm fire in the 900 block of N. Calvert St. and were taken to Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center for treatment, fire officials said. About 3:30 p.m., a fire started in apartments at 934-936 N. Calvert St., and heavy black smoke quickly filled the building.

In Baltimore City Jury to resume deliberations in trial of police officer A Circuit Court jury deliberated for more than five hours yesterday without returning a verdict against city police Officer Clyde Rawlins Jr. Rawlins, 25, is on trial for perjury, misconduct in office and second-degree assault, stemming from a July 9 incident in West Baltimore that led to a scuffle with a man who suffered a black eye and was arrested. Prosecutors say the arrest was illegal. Defense attorneys Kim Alley and Michael Belsky say the arrest was legal and their client did not punch the man. Jury deliberations were to resume today.

Police Officers Lawang Hyman and Michael Minor were waiting for a tow truck to haul a stolen car from a West Baltimore street when they saw smoke billowing from a rowhouse around the corner. They crashed through the front door, raced up a narrow smoke-filled staircase and rescued three women, including an amputee, from the three-story house in the 2000 block of N. Payson St. But the officers couldn't open a door, blocked by debris, where Henry Brianstein, 50, was trapped. Firefighters arrived moments later, about 9 a.m., hacked the door down with an ax and pulled Brianstein outside.

Two firefighters were injured last night while a battling a three-alarm blaze that broke out in the 2300 block of Tucker Lane in the Wakefield neighborhood of Northwest Baltimore. Firefighters Richard Bocian and Edward Flemming were on the first floor of the three-story house when the floor collapsed, but the men caught themselves before plunging into the basement. Both were transported to Mercy Medical Center, where they were treated and released. It took about 50 firefighters two hours to bring the fire, which began about 7 p.m., under control.

The state fire marshal's office is investigating the cause of a three-alarm fire that destroyed a large barn near Lineboro yesterday.The fire was discovered by the owners, Robert Boyd and Karen Wooden of Stoney Lane, shortly before noon.By the time firefighters arrived, the two-story barn was ablaze, and a second alarm was called. The fire eventually went to three alarms.A house about 50 feet from the burning barn suffered minor damage to the vinyl siding, said Lineboro Fire Chief Robert Utz.Ten companies, including four from southern Pennsylvania, responded.