On April 15th around 3:00PM Box Alarm 47-80 was dispatched for a dwelling fire in the Morrell Park section of southwest Baltimore. Squad 47 reported heavy smoke when they got on the street and headed in that direction. They arrived first with a 2 1/2 story frame duplex with heavy smoke showing everywhere and heavy fire from the Bravo side. One of the firefighters on duty for the day on Squad 47 lives in the house that was the Bravo exposure and the siding was starting to melt from the extreme heat. When Acting Battalion Chief 3 arrived on the scene he made it a working fire followed one minute later with the second alarm. There was a partial collapse and a bulging wall on the Delta side and exterior operations were set up pretty much from the start.
These are the conditions as I arrived pretty much with the second alarm units:
The smoke was getting so low and thick that I had to move back around to the front. About 5 minutes after I left that spot the house collapsed in the rear:
After the smoke subsided somewhat you could see the results of the collapse.
After the fire was placed under control a few hours later,companies remained on the scene throughout the night and rotated fire watches until the next day.
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