Fire damages Boonsboro home

December 28, 1999

By KIMBERLY YAKOWSKI / Staff Writer

photo: RIC DUGAN / staff photographer

BOONSBORO - One person was injured in a fire that damaged portions of a Boonsboro home Tuesday morning, according to Fairplay Fire Department Chief Leonard Heller Jr.

Firefighters went to 7622 Fairplay Road after homeowner Troy Lee Woods discovered the fire around 9:13 a.m.

Woods was taken to Washington County Hospital for treatment for smoke inhalation and a cut on his arm. He was admitted to the hospital and was listed in fair condition Tuesday night.

He was the only person home when the fire broke out, Heller said.

When firefighters arrived, 20-foot flames were shooting from the front picture window.

They attacked the fire by entering through the front and side doors and the basement, containing the blaze mainly to the living room and kitchen, which were already engulfed, firefighters said.

The fire was under control in about 20 minutes, Heller said.

Initially it was believed that the source of the blaze was a Christmas tree that was too close to an electric baseboard heater, Heller said.

An investigator with the Office of the Maryland State Fire Marshal's Office later determined the fire started when Woods removed ashes from a woodstove and discarded them in a plastic bucket Tuesday morning.

The bucket was placed next to a pile of wood that was stacked in the basement. More than an hour passed before Woods noticed smoke in the one-story home.

He traced the smoke to the burning wood pile in the basement and went to a neighbor's house to call 911, investigators said.

The fire burned through the basement ceiling into the living room and caused damage estimated at $70,000, investigators said.

Woods, his wife and two children are staying with relatives, Heller said.

In addition to Fairplay, rescuers from Sharpsburg, Boonsboro, Williamsport, Halfway, Washington County Air Unit and the Washington County Rehabilitation Unit went to the fire.

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