A family of six fled to safety as fire engulfed a Barnesville, Maryland, house early Monday morning, according to the Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service.
Firefighters responded to a “large, single-family home” overwhelmed by flames in the 21700 block of Peachtree Road after receiving a 911 call and an automatic alarm from that address around 2:30 a.m., according to fire department spokesperson Pete Piringer.
He said there were three adults, three children and several pets inside the home when the fire started.
“They woke up, discovered what they believed was a glow, or, you know, fire outside,” Piringer said.
The family, Piringer said, believes the fire began on the deck behind the home and that the wind overnight helped the flames quickly spread to the home.
“As the residents were making their way out, they called 911 from their driveway and the fire was already in its advanced stages,” he said.
A neighbor told WTOP the family believes they and their pets got out of the home “in the nick of time” with only the clothes on their back. The home and several cars were completely destroyed.
About three hours after firefighters first arrived to the scene, they had used “60- or 70-thousand gallons of water” that had to be trucked to the site, as the house was in a nonhydrant area, Piringer said.
“There was partial collapse of the structure during the firefight,” Piringer said.
Monday afternoon, in the pile of charred rubble, which was once the 10,000 square foot farm style home, only one small section of wall remained standing.
The fire has been initially deemed as accidental, and the cause remains under investigation, according to Piringer.
WTOP’s Mike Murillo contributed to this report from Barnesville, Maryland.
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