From the Maryland State Fire Marshals Office:
A team of Deputy State Fire Marshals are working to determine the origin and cause of a blaze that extensively damaged a three and half story, 18-unit condominium building located at 18 Owens Landing Court in Perryville
Nearly 100 firefighters responded to the scene from Cecil and Harford County fire companies as well as Perry Point Veterans Affairs Fire Department. The fire was reported at 2:54 a.m. and the fire was quickly upgraded to 3-alarms. Firefighters from Perry Point Veterans Affairs Fire Department were able to make entry into a third-floor condominium and rescue a 93 year-old female occupant who was subsequently transported to Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center by Maryland State Police Aviation Command. A total of three other occupants were transported to local hospitals for minor and non-life threatening injuries.
It took nearly four hours to safely bring the fire under control. A total of 24 occupants have been displaced and are being assisted by Red Cross, friends and family. The building is 1 of 7 buildings within the Owens Landing complex. The involved building is considered a complete loss with extensive heat damage to both buildings on either side. An early assessment of damage by investigators is estimated to be approximately $2 million. The condominium buildings have smoke alarms in each unit, a fire alarm throughout the building and are equipped with fire sprinklers.
This will be an extended operation and investigators will remain on scene throughout the day.
Thankyou firefighters and emergency responders!
Wow and this is with a sprinkler system.
Depending when they are built, the sprinkler lines may be made out of a plastic material. Obviously, those will not stand up in that kind of heat.
Being PVC has little to do with anything, a fire typically doesn’t start out as a raging inferno. A fire that size can’t be put out with a cup of water either, but depending on what started it, say a candle it could have been easily extinguished with one. Sprinkler systems are designed to keep fires under control till he fire dept arrives. Something obviously went terribly wrong and it wasn’t because of plastic pipes.
Do they still build with fire walls?
This is the sort of thing that can happen with wooden frame buildings. All multi unit residential structures should be built out of steel and concrete.