Firefighters' quick work kept city apartment building fire from spreading, chief says

A fire that erupted Thursday evening at an Oak Hill Avenue apartment building was mainly contained to the top floor and attic space, according to Hagerstown Fire Department Chief John DiBacco, but displaced the occupants of building's nine apartments.

The Red Cross is assisting those residents, DiBacco told The Herald-Mail, and the fire was being investigated Friday by the Hagerstown Fire Marshal's office.

The fire department was alerted at 6:43 p.m. Thursday for an apartment fire at the Mount Royal Apartments at 673 Oak Hill Ave. Engine 2 arrived first, and firefighters found smoke showing from the top floor of a four-story apartment building and evacuated occupants.

The fire appeared to originate on the fourth floor and spread to the attic space, DiBacco said, but did not spread downward to the other floors.

"The firefighters did a tremendous job getting a lot of water quickly to where it needed to be and that slowed the fire growth down, contained it and eventually extinguished it," DiBacco said. "The building, I can't tell you if it's a complete loss or not. That's gonna be judged once they get in there and they can evaluate it."

But he said the lower floors likely sustained only water and some smoke damage. "People who live in that building for the most part are gonna be able to get their stuff," he said. "It may be wet, but it's not gonna be burned up."

He said firefighters assisted one occupant who had left needed medication in the building, retrieving the medicine once the fire was out. "That kind of tells you about the conditions inside," he said. "Other than the top floor, the lower floors were OK to go in."

And the Humane Society of Washington County was called to care for a pet bird while its owner is displaced, he said, but he was unaware that any other pets had been injured.

DiBacco said firefighters remained on the scene overnight, and were still there Friday morning while the fire marshal's office conducted its investigation.

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At least a dozen other agencies assisted Hagerstown firefighters, either at the scene or backfilling fire stations. That include both professional and volunteer firefighters from throughout Washington County as well as from Waynesboro and Adams County, Pa., and Frederick County, Md.

"It was a lot of people on the scene making tremendous effort to contain it, confine it and then backfilling the city (stations) to provide coverage for the city while our primary on-duty units were there," DiBacco said.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Mail: Fire displaces occupants of nine apartments in Hagerstown building