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Falling debris scorches volunteer at house fire
Firefighter has 2nd-degree burns from Indian Head blaze
Friday, May 1, 2009
 Click here to enlarge this photo Staff photo by GRETCHEN PHILLIPS
Insurance repair workers assess damage to a home on Fairhill Lane in Indian Head after an early morning fire Wednesday that injured a Potomac Heights Volunteer Fire Department firefighter.
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Falling embers burned a volunteer firefighter who was battling a Wednesday morning townhouse fire that displaced an Indian Head family.
About 55 firefighters responded at 2:38 a.m. to the home on Fairhill Lane, where three floors were ablaze, according to Potomac Heights Volunteer Fire Department Chief Brian Phillips. A 22-year-old Potomac Heights firefighter was injured when burning debris fell on his back, Phillips said.
Initially, the five-year department veteran didn't realize he had been seriously hurt, reported Deputy Chief State Fire Marshal Duane Svites.
"At first, it was like, ‘Ouch, that hurts.' But later when he took off his jacket, he discovered he had second-degree burns on his back," Svites said.
The firefighter was taken by ambulance to the Washington Hospital Center, where he was treated and released later in the day, authorities reported.
Because the townhome's stove wasn't working, residents had been using a charcoal grill to cook on the porch, and authorities think that might have ignited the fire, said Indian Head firefighter D.J. Collins.
The fire started in the rear of the home and spread up into the attic, according to Collins.
An occupant of the home discovered the fire, a report stated.
Members of the Indian Head, Potomac Heights, Bryans Road, Marbury, La Plata and Waldorf volunteer fire departments and firefighters from the Naval Support Facility, Indian Head put out the blaze in about an hour and 10 minutes.
Residents of the home, a man, woman and four children, were displaced by the two-alarm fire and are being helped by their family and by the American Red Cross, a report from the Maryland State Fire Marshal's Office stated.
The fire caused about $150,000 in damage to the home and $50,000 to its contents.
By 3 p.m. Wednesday, the back of the townhome was covered in blue plastic, and insurance company workers moved in and out of the badly charred residence.
Two neighbors, who wouldn't give their names, said they were evacuated from their home for several hours in the middle of the night.
"Thank God everybody got out," one of the neighbors said.
