Thank you for your patience while we retrieve your images.
Visitors 552
Modified 19-Dec-23
Created 8-Jan-10
193 photos

On September 8, 2008 at around 9:00AM, a customer at the Edmondson Village Shopping Center in west Baltimore smelled smoke and noticed smoke coming from the roof. She then ran over to Engine Company 53 located on Swann Avenue, directly across the street from the store, and alerted the firefighters on duty. They responded at 9:11, dropping a line from the hydrant in front of their quarters and went to the front of the building. At the same time Fire Communications was receiving calls reporting the fire and struck out the full box assignment. As firefighters entered the three stores there was no visible smoke or fire showing inside. They then began to tear into the ceilings to look for the fire. There were multiple layers of ceilings in the stores and they could not get into the area above, where the fire was. As crews arrived and began to ventilate the slate and timber roof heavy smoke began to show out of the hole and was coming out through the shingles on the west side of the building’s second story high gable roof.
The 107’ X 70’ building was occupied by three stores: Ashley Stewart Clothing, and two beauty, hair, and gift shops. This building is at the west end of a large historic shopping center. It opened up in 1947 and was the first and largest of its kind in the area. The whole shopping center is two blocks long and the one and two story buildings are constructed of brick with slate shingles on large gable roofs.
The fire was burning intensely inside of the attic above the stores. After a small collapse in the rear of the building, crews were evacuated and exterior operations were started. A second alarm was sounded at 9:32 and a third alarm 20 minutes later. As firefighters were cutting away at the roof the smoke and fire was getting heavier and visibility on the west side of the building was near zero. At about 10:30, without warning, the entire roof collapsed into the building knocking down the west wall outward, into two large utility poles carrying multiple electrical lines through the neighborhood. The poles broke but the lines held them up from falling onto the firefighters and apparatus operating on that side. The fire was now free burning and it was contained to the original building. A fourth alarm was sounded bringing more crews to relieve the initial fire crews fighting the fire in the hot and humid conditions. The fire was brought under control in about four hours. One firefighter received a minor injury and was transported to the hospital. The building was totally destroyed and the loss was estimated at $500,000. It is not known if it will be rebuilt at this time. Fire Investigators are still trying to determine the cause of the fire. It was surmised to be electrical in nature, but due to the destruction they may never find out the cause.
There were several other fires in this large shopping center in the past. In 1963 a six-alarm fire was centered in the Tommy Tucker variety store and a two-alarm fire at the Rite-Aid occurred in 1990. Neither one of those was as destructive as this one.

Categories & Keywords
Category:
Subcategory:
Subcategory Detail:
Keywords: