Nearly two-dozen residents of an Abingdon apartment complex were displaced and one injured Tuesday morning after discarded smoking materials sparked a fire that caused more than a half-million dollars in damage to the building.
Just before 9 a.m. on Tuesday morning, emergency personnel were dispatched to the 500 block of Eastview Terrace in Abingdon for the report of a fire in a three-story, garden style apartment building with 12 units.
The fire originated on the exterior balcony/front door of Unit 11 and rapidly spread upward along the vinyl siding, breaching into the common attic. While the units were equipped with sprinklers, the common attic was not. The preliminary cause is being blamed on discarded smoking material.
Forty firefighters from Abingdon, Joppa-Magnolia, Bel Air, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Kingsville, and Aberdeen responded to the two-alarm blaze and had the fire under control within 30 minutes.
The Office of the State Fire Marshal estimated the fire caused $500,000 in damage to the structure and another $150,000 in damage to its contents. One civilian sustained a minor injury on-scene, was transported to Upper Chesapeake Medical Center, and was later discharged.
A total of 23 people have been displaced according to Harford County Disaster Assistance and the American Red Cross.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.