100 Mt. Washington Condo Residents Evacuated After 3-Alarm Fire
BALTIMORE (WJZ)-- There's still no cause to a three-alarm blaze in a building filled with senior citizens. It happened Friday night in the Mt. Washington area of Baltimore.
Alex DeMetrick has the latest details.
The video was shot by neighbors, and it was neighbors who helped save lives.
"A young man came up yelling, 'Get out of the building! Get out of the building!'" condo owner Freida Mazer said. "When we saw the flames going through the fourth floor, and saw apartments going up with your friends, you start worrying that everyone got out."
Fire exploded through the upper floors shortly before 11 p.m. Friday, at a condo unit in the Heather Ridge development near Mt. Washington.
"First unit on the scene immediately sounded a second alarm, for being through the roof, and the fact it was an occupied apartment building," Capt. Roman Clark of the Baltimore City Fire Department said.
The fire reached three alarms before firefighters got it under control. Ladder units were used to get some people out. All together, as many as 100 mainly older residents were evacuated.
"I've checked with all my friends. They're all doing fine, thank God," one resident said.
Construction workers were boarding up and removing debris into Saturday evening. Water, smoke damage and lost electricity kept most out of their homes.
"We're spending the night in a hotel," explained condo owner Harvey Goren. "Other people went to hotels, and other people went to family members, you know?"
Goren, like others evacuated, knows it could have been worse.
"It was a pretty scary scene when you see your home, the place you live, on fire," he said. "That's scary."
No injuries were reported. Cause of the fire, and where exactly it started, remains under investigation.
A dollar loss from the fire department has not yet been established.
