Home»BALTIMORE CITY FIRE DEPARTMENT»INCIDENTS»2012 Fires and Incidents»5-Alarm 517 S. Broadway 6-11-12

Around 1:30 PM on June 11, 2012 firefighters were dispatched to a reported fire in the 500 block S. Regester Street in the historic Fells Point area of Baltimore. When they arrived they found heavy smoke lingering throughout the entire neighborhood. Regester Street is a narrow alley-street and access is pretty tight and limited. The involved building was actually on South Broadway and backed up to the rear of the small row-houses on Regester St. They found heavy fire and smoke on the upper floors of the vacant building and made it a working fire with the second alarm following within eight minutes of arrival. Companies then made their way to the Broadway side and began to open up the partially vacant four-story building that housed a grocery store on the first floor. In the 1920’s this building was known as “Hechts Reliable Department Store” and ironically the grocery store was a set for a scene in the movie “Ladder 49” that was filmed here in 2003.
Crews set up ladder pipes and took positions on the roofs of the adjacent buildings with handlines to battle the blaze from the exterior.
During the height of the blaze heavy smoke continued to bank down in the surrounding streets because of the high heat and humidity. It took its toll on the firefighters. A third alarm was struck out at 2:08, a fourth at 2:32 and a fifth at 2:56 bringing a total of about 130 firefighters and 40 pieces of apparatus, including many mutual aid companies, some as far as Harford County that filled in the open stations. The three rotating companies that were closed for that day were reactivated with personnel that were called back to duty.
The fire wasn’t brought under control until about 5:45 that evening. Because of a few collapses within the building during the fire the building was pretty well gutted. Crews remained on the scene until the next morning and heavy equipment was called in to tear the rear of the building down. The fire was confined to the original building although neighboring residents and businesses were evacuated as a precaution.
Two firefighters suffered minor injuries and were transported to a local hospital for evaluation.
Fire Investigators and Police Arson were on the scene sifting through the rubble to determine a cause for the blaze.