Raw Video From Greenbelt Fire. Blaze Extended to 2nd Single-Family Home.
Click here for raw video shot by Tom Yeatman.
The fire was first spotted around 2:45 a.m. on Sunday, by a motorist driving along Greenbelt Road near NASA. The rear of the house on Copernicus Drive faces Greenbelt Road. According to Prince George’s County fire investigators, the fire started on the rear deck of the home.
Neighbors tell STATter 911, at about the same time, a group of college-aged men and women were leaving a party a few houses away. They spotted the fire and banged on the door and helped the occupants escape.
9410 Copernicus Drive is a two-story plus basement, single-family home. The house is non-sprinklered. It appears to have been built just prior to the 1992 sprinkler requirement for all new homes in Prince George’s County.
According to Mark Brady, Chief Spokesman for Prince George’s County Fire/EMS, the first firefighters encountered heavy fire from side C. Brady reports the crews “initiated a coordinated and aggressive interior attack on the fire”. Brady wrote in a press release that “the fire had burned so intensely before firefighters arrival that crews were forced to evacuate the burning structure for fear of a collapse”.
The video by freelance videographer Tom Yeatman, first shows the heavy fire from side C. From this vantage point you can see the evidence of the interior attack.
As Yeatman moves to side A, it is clear that the fire has extended to the side D exposure (9412), a similarly built home. The pictures from side A indicate an interior attack is still underway in the home where the fire began. A short time later, the crews begin exiting the structure. Once outside, an exterior attack begins on the garage area, until orders come to move that line toward exposure D.
Two occupants of 9410 Copernicus Drive were treated at the scene for minor injuries. The family at 9412 Copernicus Drive was away on vacation. They learned of the fire when they were alerted by their alarm company that a signal was being received from the home. The homeowner then called a neighbor who told him that a fire next door had now extended to his home.
A Greenbelt City Police officer was briefly hospitalized for an ankle injury.
According to Brady there were two injuries to firefighters:
… a member of the Greenbelt Fire/EMS Station 35 sustained injuries to his knee and was treated and released from an area hospital and a member of the West Lanham Hills Fire/EMS Station 48 sustained burn injuries and has been admitted to an area Burn Unit for observation, he is reported to be in fair condition. (Update: He has been released from the hospital.)
Damage is estimated at more than $700,000. There was relatively minor damage to the side B exposure (9408) as firefighters checked the structure for extension. Investigators believe the fire started in the area of the propane grill that had been on the wooden deck.
