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2 Found Dead After Glen Burnie Warehouse Fire

BALTIMORE (WJZ) - Fire raged through an Anne Arundel County auto body shop and after the flames were out, firefighters found two people inside, dead.  The fire broke out early Wednesday morning in Glen Burnie.  Kelly McPherson has more on the just-launched investigation.

The investigators have not identified the two bodies found inside the burnt building but family and friends of the two Highlandtown men say they are the ones who died.

Fire took over an industrial building that houses several auto body shops Wednesday morning.  Forty-five minutes later, the roof caved in.

"It collapsed very quickly into the fire attack," said Anne Arundel County Fire Department Lt. Keith Hamilton.

The 60 firefighters didn't notice that two men were inside the building until the fire was extinguished.

"The fire attack was already underway and there was such a heavy volume of fire that no one was going inside the structure," Hamilton said.

The men who died have not been identified but friends and family of two employees say it's "Macho" Acevedo and Yoni Ramos.

"They couldn't find them.  They work with them and they always stay there so--'cause they work a lot, all night long," said Rob Sanchuk, who works next door.  "They were good guys.  Good work, worked hard."

"When he left last night, he left me and said `I'm going back to the shop and work.'  And he come over here so when I hear the news this morning at 10, I drove over here to see what's up," said Macho's father-in-law, Luis Vasquez.  "I know it's them,"

Friends of Johnny and Macho say that the two would work at the auto body shop so often that they would sleep inside the garage and that investigators say the two men were found in sleeping positions.

"He was here working 16, 17 hours a day there.  He was a hardworking man," Vasquez said.

Family members arrived at the scene to give DNA samples to help identify the men, who will be examined to determine how they died.  Fire officials have not ruled out any causes for the fire.

The 45-year-old man is from Puerto Rico; he has three children.  The 17-year-old is from Honduras.

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