A Forest Hill home was seriously damaged in a Monday afternoon blaze which was ignited by juveniles playing with fire.
The fire was discovered in a residence on East Jarrettsville Road at approximately 1:14 p.m. when several children under the age of 8 told their mother that their second floor bedroom was on fire, according to the State Fire Marshal’s Office. The woman unsuccessfully attempted to extinguish the rapidly-spreading fire, before fleeing the house with her children.
A total of 30 firefighters from the Bel Air and Jarrettsville Volunteer Fire Companies brought the blaze under control in about 10 minutes. The fire, which was traced to the side of a bed in the room, was contained to the children’s bedroom with significant smoke, soot, and water damage throughout the home.
Damage to the home was estimated at $40,000 and damages to its contents were estimated at $10,000, according to the State Fire Marshal’s Office. Temporary assistance is being provided by the Harford County Disaster Assistance Team.
Ok where in Forest Hill how about a road name or family name? Do they need further assistance or is this something insurance will cover? How long with they be displaced? How can one help a neighbor if we don’t get a report on the type of help that they may need? This was a very shallow and irresponsible report.
It says EAST JARRETTSVILLE RD. Why would they print a family name?? It’s called privacy.
Deborah was right, I had mistakenly missed including the street name, which we usually include. I updated the story after she pointed that out.
However, Dave is correct in that we generally don’t publish the family’s name in these incidents for privacy concerns. (Also, the information we get doesn’t always differentiate between who owns the house, and who was living there or present at the time of the fire, i.e. renters.)
If a family or aid organization requests publicity for relief efforts, we’re happy to put that out. But otherwise we give the benefit of the doubt to their privacy in a tough time. To do otherwise would be “irresponsible.”
I was there as a Red Cross representative and this family with four children are being housed in a motel for a couple nights and were given funds for food, replacement clothing and infant supplies. No injuries.