Family Member Of Annapolis Mansion Fire Victims Trying To Prevent Similar Tragedies

BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- One Maryland woman is reliving a painful memory in the hopes of preventing future tragedies.

Sher Grogg lost six relatives in fire at Donald and Sandra Pyle's 16,000 square foot mansion along Childs Point Road in Annapolis.

The house was still decorated for the holidays when, on January 19, 2015, authorities say a fire started in an outlet underneath the Christmas tree, spread to a tree skirt and then to the tree itself.

"I'll carry that cold, dark day with me always," Grogg says. "The hole in my heart is everlasting."

Grogg says that in a public service announcement by Common Voices, a group for people affected by fires.

In her case, her brother, her sister-in-law and their four grandchildren were killed.

"... the flames shot way up hight, above the tree line, and I thought 'Oh my God,'" says Azalea Leckszas, a neighbor.

The mansion was only 11 years old, with smoke detectors hard wired to an alarm system.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, as part of its investigation, burned a tree similar in size and dryness. Burning so hot, it created a "flashover."

That's when furniture, drapes and anything else that can burn gets hot enough to explode into flames.

When it was built, no codes required mansions to have sprinkler systems. That's now the common cause of fire victims' families.

Following the mansion fire, Maryland's Department of Housing and Community Development requires fire spinklers in new one and two family dwellings.

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