Windjammer Way, Gburg, 2-Alarm TH fire, all occupants are accounted for, 2 rescued, several pets missing, 100 FFs OS pic.twitter.com/y84Vs43KLk
— Pete Piringer (@mcfrsPIO) March 30, 2016
GAITHERSBURG, Md. – A man is dead after a two-alarm fire ripped through a Gaithersburg town house Tuesday night.
Montgomery County Fire Chief Scott Goldstein says people reported hearing a loud bang and seeing smoke at the two-story house in the 1800 block of Windjammer Way around 10 p.m.
“Two residents from the upper floor got out of the structure,” Goldstein says.
At one point, a fire official said that everyone in the house was accounted for. After the fire was brought under control around 12:30 a.m. Wednesday, firefighters found the body of a man among the debris in the basement of the home.
The identity of the victim has not been released, and the cause of the fire remains under investigation.
Part of the town house collapsed, and houses on both sides of it suffered damage. One of them was unoccupied, but residents in the other house were forced to leave. The Red Cross is helping those who are affected.
More than 100 firefighters responded to the scene overnight, and they had a difficult time getting the flames under control.
“The fire made all the visual presentations that it was being fed by natural gas,” Goldstein says, but fire officials say town houses in the area do not have natural gas, so investigators are working to determine what if anything was fueling the fire.
Below is a map of the approximate location of the fire:
WTOP’s Meg Hasken contributed to this report.
