Two Alarm Fire

A home in Odenton was heavily damaged after a two-alarm fire on Sunday afternoon, Anne Arundel fire officials said. No one was injured, but fire and smoke spread to two adjoining townhouses and some cars in the 7600 block of Found Artifact Court, fire officials said, and the total damage was estimated at $300,000. About 50 firefighters had the fire under control about 40 minutes after it was reported at around 2 p.m. The cause of the fire is under investigation. cwells@baltsun.com twitter.com/cwellssun

The Baltimore City Office of Emergency Management said at 8:06 a.m. on Wednesday that city firefighters are battling a two-alarm blaze near Gwynns Falls Parkway and Reisterstown Road. OEM said that motorists should expect road closures and avoid the area. A collision on the inner loop of Interstate 695 in Lochearn at Liberty Road has closed the inner loop right shoulder at 8:52 a.m. on Wednesday, according to the state Department of Transportation. A two-vehicle collision on I-95 South in Rossville past the Baltimore Beltway exit has closed the southbound right shoulder at 8:42 a.m. on Wednesday, according to DOT. Emergency roadwork on MD 150 East in Dundalk at Pembrooke Boulevard has closed the eastbound right traffic lane and eastbound right shoulder at 4:18 a.m., DOT said.

A two-alarm fire broke out at a senior housing facility in Pikesville early Monday morning, Baltimore County fire officials said. The fire department responded to Springhouse Assisted Living in the 8900 block of Reisterstown Road at around 2:40 a.m. to fight the fire, the department said. The fire was contained to a single room at the facility but some residents from the second and third floors were moved for safety, according to fire officials. No one was injured but one person was taken to the hospital for trouble breathing that was unrelated to the fire, according to the department.

A two-alarm fire in Baltimore City on Wednesday morning has sent a police officer to the Maryland Shock Trauma Center due to possible smoke inhalation, city fire department officials said. Capt. Roman Clark said that the blaze occurred at an apartment-style building with six units that were all vacant due to renovations. Officials said that the incident occurred at the 3400 block of Woodbrook Avenue near Mondawmin Mall. Clark added that a firefighter suffered minor injuries during the incident and was transported to a local hospital.

No one was injured when a two-alarm blaze broke out in a Towson retirement home Wednesday morning, Baltimore County officials said. The fire broke out inside a kitchen of an individual unit in the Blakehurst Retirement Community building at 1055 West Joppa Road at around 7:30 a.m., county fire officials said. It quickly escalated to two alarms. Officials initially said the building was being evacuated, but later said most residents sheltered in place. Some residents did choose to leave the building until the incident was under control.

A midday, two-alarm fire heavily damaged the western Ellicott City townhouse where it began and two adjoining units Monday, according to Howard County fire officials. Howard County Fire Department Battalion Chief Gordon Wallace said the fire in the 10500 block of Old Ellicott Circle was reported at 12:50 p.m. and arriving crews found the garage townhouse engulfed in flames. Units on both sides of the three-level house were also damaged, and two vehicles in the garage were destroyed, he said, though the homes are equipped with sprinklers.

A Baltimore County woman died after a two-alarm fire engulfed a Reisterstown's home Wednesday, county officials said. Karen Diener, 59, died Wednesday morning at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center after a fire broke out in her home in the unit block of Blake Court about 1 a.m. Police said the cause of the fire remains under investigation, but there is no indication at this time that it was intentionally set. About 15 fire companies, with...

A two-alarm fire burned three homes in the city's Washington Village/Pigtown neighborhood on Friday morning, according to the Baltimore Fire Department. Firefighters responded to the scene in the 1100 block of Ward St. shortly after 6 a.m. and found heavy smoke and flames, a dispatcher said. The fire extended to three homes — all of which were believed to be vacant — before being brought under control at 7:12 a.m., the dispatcher said. No injuries were reported to civilians or firefighters, he said.

A two-alarm fire at an Anne Arundel County school Tuesday morning damaged several classrooms and took more than an hour to bring under control, county fire officials said. Emergency dispatchers received a call about 5:40 a.m. for a fire at Eagle Cove School, in the 5100 block of Mountain Road in Pasadena. Investigators said the blaze started above a fourth-grade classroom near a heating and air unit inside the school's North Building. At least two other classrooms sustained water and smoke damage, according to a fire department spokesman.

A two-alarm fire engulfed two connected homes in Southwest Baltimore's Irvington neighborhood Sunday afternoon, though no one was injured even after part of the building collapsed, city fire officials said. The fire started in one of two houses in the unit block of Augusta Avenue, fire department spokesman Capt. Roman Clark said, and four adults in that home were alerted by smoke alarms and were able to get out safely. No one was at home in the second house, where the fire spread, though a resident has been notified.

The Baltimore City Fire Department reported a two-alarm fire in the 3600 block of Duvall Avenue overnight into Friday morning. The department said via its Twitter account that units had responded and evacuated residents from the building. The department described the building as a three-story multi-family. Few details were immediately available, but the department said one firefighter had received a "minor" injury that was considered non-life threatening.

A large commercial building was damaged in a two-alarm fire Friday night, Anne Arundel Fire Department said. Firefighters got the fire under control at 10:30 p.m., about an hour after they were called to the 600 block of Pittman Road, said Lt. Craig Oldershaw, a department spokesman. Oldershaw said fire investigators were trying to determine the cause of the blaze in one part of what he described as a large manufacturing building. Hazarous materials personnel also responded because of the presence of a compound, manganese oxide, in the building.

A two-alarm fire broke out in a vacant rowhome in West Baltimore early Friday morning, though no one was reported to be injured. Baltimore fire department spokesman Ian Brennan said the fire was reported around 4 a.m. in the 600 block of N. Carey St. in the Harlem Park neighborhood, with heavy fire showing from the rear of the building when firefighters arrived. The fire also damaged the two adjacent rowhouses, one which was occupied and the other vacant. Brennan said the fire took more than two hours to get under control because firefighters were unable to enter the vacant structures to attack it. The cause of the fire is under investigation.

Numerous fires, many thought to be sparked by lightning from a storm that passed through the area, damaged homes in the Baltimore region overnight, according to volunteer companies and fire departments. In Harford County, authorities said a bolt of lightning struck a home in the 3200 block of Canterbury Lane in Fallston, running through the garage and hitting a resident inside at the time. The resident was taken to a hospital with injuries that weren't expected to be life-threatening, officials said.

Lightning struck a Fallston man and was blamed for several house fires as storms moved through the region this week, volunteer fire companies and fire departments said. The man, who was not identified, was struck about 10:15 p.m. Wednesday while closing his garage door from the inside in the 3200 block of Canterbury Lane, Harford County fire officials said. He was taken to a hospital with nonfatal injuries. In Baltimore County, a two-alarm fire spread from the roof of a three-story apartment building in the 3900 block of Noyes Circle in Randallstown, displacing several people from the Woodridge Apartments, according to a volunteer fire company.

Sean McCullough's father often walked him and his older brother to school after working an overnight shift at the 7-Eleven on Lexington Street downtown. But on Monday — the last day of the year at Robert W. Coleman Elementary School — the 7-year-old boy's father rushed home about 2 a.m. when he heard that the family's home on North Bruce Street in the Franklin Square neighborhood in West Baltimore was engulfed in flames, family and neighbors said. Sean was trapped on the second floor of the rowhouse and died after firefighters pulled him from the blaze, officials said.

A two-alarm building fire in Baltimore's Penn-Fallsway neighborhood billowed smoke high into the sky but was controlled in a matter of minutes by city firefighters Monday night, officials said. Firefighters were called at 7:22 p.m. to the building at the corner of North Gay and High streets. The fire was downgraded from two alarms in six minutes, and was under control in less than a half hour, fire department spokesman Ian Brennan said. No one was injured. The official cause is under investigation, but Steve Tsamouras, who owns the building, said he had been torching a new rubber roof earlier in the day. When he finished, he said, he went to his home a few blocks away and then got a call about the fire.

No one was injured when a two-alarm blaze broke out in a Towson retirement home Wednesday morning, Baltimore County officials said. The fire broke out inside a kitchen of an individual unit in the Blakehurst Retirement Community building at 1055 West Joppa Road at around 7:30 a.m., county fire officials said. It quickly escalated to two alarms. Officials initially said the building was being evacuated, but later said most residents sheltered in place. Some residents did choose to leave the building until the incident was under control.