Fire Damage

HANCOCK -- No one was injured Saturday morning in a house fire on North Pennsylvania Avenue, according to a press release from the Maryland State Fire Marshal. Authorities believe an oil-fueled furnace in the home at 259 N. Pennsylvania Ave. malfunctioned and ignited nearby combustibles in the first-floor living room. Damages were estimated at about $50,000, the fire marshal said. The family was displaced by the fire and is being assisted by relatives, the fire marshal said.

A kitchen fire that started Saturday afternoon as a 12-year-old boy was cooking french fries resulted in "extensive damage" to a single-family home on Bethel Street in Hagerstown, said Capt. Brian Pile of the Hagerstown Fire Department. The damage has made the home uninhabitable, he said. The fire at 47 W. Bethel St. started about 1:14 p.m., Pile said. Firefighters contained the blaze to the home, he said. He did not have a cost estimate for the fire damage. Portions of Bethel and Jonathan streets were closed temporarily due to the fire.

CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. - The cause of a fire Wednesday night that displaced about a half-dozen people from a house at 235 S. Fourth St. was being investigated, Chambersburg Deputy Fire Chief Paul Benchoff said. The fire in a second-floor bedroom was called in at about 7 p.m. and quickly was brought under control, Benchoff said. Fire damage was limited to the bedroom, but firefighters were tossing and shoveling charred debris from the broken windows. The fire appeared to have started on a bed, but the cause was not immediately known, Benchoff said.

A fire in the bathroom wall of a trailer at 7929 Old National Pike, north of Boonsboro, Wednesday afternoon appeared to be accidental, said Jay Brandenburg, deputy chief of The Fire Hose Co. of Boonsboro. The call was dispatched at 5:39 p.m. About 45 minutes later, firefighters continued to poke at and examine the wall, which they had torn open to get at the fire. A toilet was visible from outside. Brandenburg said the fire damage was minimal, but smoke damage may be greater.

CLEAR SPRING - Three elderly residents of a group home on the 13900 block of Spickler Road had to be rescued by firefighters but were not injured in a Saturday night fire. Called in at 7:50 p.m., the fire is believed to have started in a pan of oil on a stove in the basement kitchen, Clear Spring Volunteer Fire Department Deputy Chief Warren Royce said. The fire damage was limited to the basement, but there was smoke damage throughout the first floor, he said. Firefighters from Maugansville, Williamsport and Halfway, along with the Washington County Special Operations Unit, went to the scene, Royce said.

SMITHSBURG - A smoke detector was found to be inoperable in a fire early Friday at an apartment building at 8 S. Main St., according to Maryland fire marshals. Fire damage was confined to the apartment occupied by John Charles Johnson, 35, according to fire marshals. There was minor smoke damage throughout the three-unit building. The cause of the 1:29 a.m. fire is under investigation. The smoke detector in Johnson's apartment had been disconnected from the electric power source, according to Deputy Fire Marshal Charles Cronauer.

Pennsylvania State Police said Thursday they are investigating a fire that caused about $2,500 damage to a porch that was under construction at a house in the 500 block of Feaster Road. A contractor discovered the fire damage when the worker returned to the house in Guilford Township on Thursday, state police said. It is believed the fire occurred between 8:30 p.m. Wednesday and 8:30 a.m. Thursday, police said. The fire was not burning when the contractor went to the house Thursday, police said.

The cause of a fire in a home last week in Jefferson County has not been determined, but it appears to be accidental in nature, according to Assistant State Fire Marshal Patrick Barker. The fire at 264 First St. in Shenandoah Junction apparently started on the second floor in the central hallway, Barker said. The home is estimated to be about 100 years old, and the wiring will be examined further, he said. Three volunteer firefighters injured while battling the fire on May 16 were treated at hospitals and released, officials said Wednesday.

No one was home during a mobile home fire in northeastern Martinsburg Sunday morning, a Martinsburg Fire Department official said. The cause of the fire on Twigg Drive was still being investigated, Fire Investigator Jonathan Sink said Sunday morning. Fire damage was limited to one room, but there was smoke damage to the rest of the home, he said. The fire was reported at 12:59 a.m. Sunday, according to Berkeley County Emergency Services. The mobile home is in a small mobile home park on Twigg Drive, which is between Athletic Street and Northwestern Avenue.

No one was injured Friday afternoon in a fire at 96 Walter Ave. in Greencastle. J.R. Koons, deputy fire chief of the Greencastle Rescue Hose Co., said the fire call was dispatched as a camper fire around 2:30 p.m. When Greencastle police arrived on the scene, Koons said the house also was involved in the fire. Most of the fire damage was contained to the camper and the adjacent carport. But Koons said the living room of the ranch-style home sustained water damage and ceiling damage in the living room.

No injuries were reported from a fire Sunday morning that damaged a storage area and office for Smithsburg Auto Parts, Smithsburg Fire Chief Chris Rohrer said. A Maryland State Fire Marshal was investigating the cause of the fire at the 5 W. Water St. shop, which is near Town Square, Rohrer said. The fire was reported at 12:48 a.m. Sunday, according to Washington County Emergency Services. Approximately 45 firefighters from Maryland and Pennsylvania responded to the fire, Rohrer said.

Halfway resident Bob Keplinger said he was in his basement Saturday night when he heard pounding on his front door. He needed to get something from upstairs anyway so he headed up the steps.  When he smelled smoke, he grabbed a fire extinguisher. Then he heard more banging, this time at his back door. When Keplinger stepped outside, he saw his two-car garage engulfed in flames, and he knew the small fire extinguisher was no match for the fire that would spread to the back of his house, he said.

A fire damaged a home on Frederick Street in Hagerstown Tuesday morning, fire officials said. City Fire Marshal Doug DeHaven said no one was at home when the fire was reported at about 5 a.m. at a duplex at 266 Frederick St. “There was moderate damage to the property,” DeHaven said. It took firefighters about 15 minutes to bring the fire under control, he said. Rescue units cleared the scene at 12:24 p.m. Hagerstown firefighters were assisted by the Volunteer Fire Co. of Halfway and Washington County Special Operations, DeHaven said.

No one was home during a mobile home fire in northeastern Martinsburg Sunday morning, a Martinsburg Fire Department official said. The cause of the fire on Twigg Drive was still being investigated, Fire Investigator Jonathan Sink said Sunday morning. Fire damage was limited to one room, but there was smoke damage to the rest of the home, he said. The fire was reported at 12:59 a.m. Sunday, according to Berkeley County Emergency Services. The mobile home is in a small mobile home park on Twigg Drive, which is between Athletic Street and Northwestern Avenue.

More than $19 million was spent to rebuild the Big Slackwater section of the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal National Historical Park near Williamsport, a massive project along the Potomac River that involved 121 columns bolted into rock to support elevated walkways. Bradley Clawson, chief ranger for the C&O Canal, thought the new concrete spans would be popular among fishermen. But Clawson said he never imagined the problem that has cropped up on the new section. People have been building fires on the walkway, and one of the blazes was so big that it damaged the surface of the walkway, leaving a pothole in the path.

Two people were injured and 26 residents were displaced when a fire tore through an apartment building early Thursday at the Fairlawn Gardens apartment complex in Martinsburg, W.Va., a fire official said. Martinsburg Fire Capt. Greg Hoover said the occupant of the apartment where the fire started and another person who jumped from a balcony to escape the fire were taken to Berkeley Medical Center to be treated for what appeared to be non-life-threatening injuries. “The roof was burned off about half the building,” Hoover said.

Two pets died in a house fire near Smithsburg when nobody was home Friday afternoon, a fire official said. A dog and a cat were found dead in the house, located at 22535 Cavetown Church Road, Smithsburg Volunteer Fire Co. Deputy Chief Chuck Johnson said. The fire, which damaged the first floor of the house, was reported at about 1 p.m., and smoke could be seen rising through the roof of the two-story house at about 1:25 p.m. Johnson said the fire was out by about 1:45 p.m., but firefighters were double-checking to make sure there was no fire in the walls.

Nobody was hurt in a Monday morning fire that destroyed a building that housed an indoor pool and apartment, Boonsboro Fire Chief Oley Griffith said. The fire, reported at 2:30 a.m. Monday at 19932 Lemuel Lane, was caused by a woodstove and was ruled accidental, according to a news release from the Maryland State Fire Marshal's office. Lemuel Lane is a private farm lane off Toms Road, Griffith said. Toms Road is off Alternate U.S. 40 and is northwest of Boonsboro. The structure was owned by Gregory Toms, according to the state fire marshal.

No injuries were reported from a fire Sunday morning that left a house in the southern end of the county uninhabitable, Boonsboro Fire Chief Oley Griffith said. The state fire marshal's office was investigating the cause of the fire at 2625 Kaetzel Road, Griffith said. Firefighters were dispatched to the fire at 8:46 a.m. Sunday, a 911 supervisor said. A fire in a finished basement in a remodeled log house spread upstairs, Griffith said. There was fire damage to the basement and first floor, and smoke damage to the second floor, he said.

The unit block of West Antietam Street in Hagerstown could reopen to traffic early next week after it was closed almost two weeks ago to let engineers examine the structural integrity of a building that was gutted by a fire, a city official said. Hagerstown spokeswoman Erin Wolfe said the street is expected to be reopened Monday or Tuesday. “They're in the process of doing the demolition work and stabilizing the remains,” Wolfe said Wednesday. She said workers were in the process of removing the top floor of the building at 19-21-23 W. Antietam St., where a fire was set Feb. 7 by a homeless man who was living in the vacant structure.