Firefighters

Firefighters were called to downtown Hagerstown Thursday morning for a report of a kitchen fire. At 11:38 a.m., the first block of North Potomac Street, near City Hall, was re-opened to traffic.

Smoke was rolling out of an oven in a Hagerstown West End apartment Sunday morning after someone baking cookies put the oven on clean mode, Hagerstown Fire Capt. Adam Hopkins said. Hagerstown firefighters responded Sunday morning to a third-floor apartment at 607 W. Washington St. for a reported kitchen fire, emergency service officials said. On clean mode, the oven door automatically locked and the oven temperature reached higher temperatures than normal for baking, Hopkins said.

Fire broke out in a commercial building on South Potomac Street on Wednesday night, causing thick, blinding smoke to spread through the neighborhood and around the intersection of South Potomac Street and Memorial Boulevard, a fire official said. When firefighters arrived, heavy fire was coming out one side of the building that faces Memorial Boulevard, said Hagerstown Fire Marshal Doug DeHaven. Fire fighters battled the fire from the exterior and were able to eventually enter the building to extinguish the blaze, which was reported just before 6:30 p.m., DeHaven said.

Maryland Department of Natural Resources firefighters are expected to spend all day Monday at the scene of an ongoing forest fire in the Indian Springs Wildlife Management Area, the third day of the fire that reached an estimated 100 acres at the point of containment Sunday afternoon, Maryland Department of Natural Resources officials said. “It will continue to smoke all day” Monday, said Ric Lillard, regional fire manager with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources' Forest Service.

A fire that caused extensive damage to a historic home along W.Va. 45 (Martinsburg Pike) early Thursday near Shepherdstown remains under investigation, Shepherdstown Volunteer Fire Department Lt. Daniel Henderson said. No one was injured in the blaze, which was reported about 1:30 a.m., according to Henderson. The cause of the fire is being investigated by the West Virginia State Fire Marshal's Office, according to Henderson. Built in the 1830s, the red brick home at 6433 Martinsburg Pike was part of Rock Spring farm, Jefferson County Historical Society spokesman Curt Mason confirmed.

Firefighters were able to save a barn on Reidtown Road north of Hagerstown Thursday night by pulling a tractor out of it which had been on fire, according to a spokesman for the Longmeadow Volunteer Fire Co. The tractor was fully engulfed in flames and the fire was starting to spread to the barn when firefighters arrived, said Longmeadow deputy chief Adam Hopkins. The barn was about 100-feet by 50-feet, Hopkins said. Firefighters were able to extend two water lines to the tractor to help extinguish the fire, Hopkins said.

Recommending two escape routes from every part of a home and reminding people to have smoke detectors in their homes were among the fire safety tips firefighters were promoting Sunday at the Clear Spring Volunteer Fire Company's fall open house. “Have 2 Ways Out” is the theme for this year's Fire Prevention Week, which began Sunday. In addition to the normal ways people have to exit a room, determining a backup escape route is recommended, Clear Spring Fire Chief Michael Reid said.

Firefighters drew water from the Potomac River to battle a fire that ripped through a remote, two-story house Friday night at 6601 Remsburg Road near Antietam National Battlefield. Sharpsburg Deputy Fire Chief Chris Mullendore said at the scene that firefighters had a hard time getting water to the fire because of the narrow roads and the house's remote location. “When we arrived, both floors of this house were on fire,” Mullendore said. He said firefighters were able to knock down flames on the first floor, but the staircase had burned away and they couldn't make it to the second level.

The Best Buy store on Garland Groh Boulevard was evacuated Wednesday night after an odor of gas was noticed at the store, according to emergency officials. Firefighters responded to the store about 8 p.m. and discovered a natural gas leak from a heating and air conditioning unit on the roof of the store, said Capt. Adam Hopkins of the Hagerstown Fire Department. Firefighters were able to stop the leak, said Hopkins. The store reopened and firefighters left the scene at 8:36 p.m., officials said.