Home»BALTIMORE CITY FIRE DEPARTMENT»INCIDENTS»2017 Fires and Incidents»1-Alarm 3100 Weedon St. 3-24-17

On March 24, 2017 Engine 23 had just finished up a training session in Brooklyn with Engine 35 and Truck 21 around 1500 hours. They were heading to the grocery store to pick up food for dinner when they spotted a large column of heavy black smoke coming from the south end of the City. They asked Communications if there were any reports of fire from there or Anne Arundel County and started to head in that direction. Communications replied back negative and placed Engine 23 out of service to investigate. Communications then started receiving several reports of brush fires and building fires in the Fairfield area.
A few minutes later Engine 23 arrived at the Baltimore Scrap Corporation located at 3100 Weedon Street and reported a 100’ square area 30’ high pile of scrapped automobiles fully involved with flames shooting 75’ high. Heavy black smoke could be seen from all parts of the City as well as Anne Arundel and Baltimore County. They dropped a line from a hydrant and began putting water on the fire and requested two more engines and a truck. When Battalion Chief 6 arrived he asked for the completion of the Fire Box Assignment. As units arrived they surrounded the fire and began pouring water on the ferocious blaze with ladder pipes, monitor pipes and hand lines. They continued for about 30 minutes until the flames began to die down. Heavy smoke was still coming from the fire below the buried cars in the pile and workers from the scrap yard began picking out cars and setting them aside with several long-armed yard picking machines so that they could be extinguished separately with hand lines
Command requested Water Tower 1 and then Haz Mat 1 to monitor the run off. The fire was placed under control around 1730 hours and units remained on the scene for several more hours until all of the cars were pulled apart from the pile and extinguished. No injuries were reported and FIB was called to investigate the cause.