Home»BALTIMORE CITY FIRE DEPARTMENT»INCIDENTS»2023 Fires and Incidents»2-Alarms 801 Arlington Ave. 2-24-23

February 24, 2023 started out as any other normal day for the Baltimore City Fire Department’s “C-Shift”. It was cloudy with a temperature around 50 and very chilly blustery winds out of the northwest.
At around 0800 hours the first of three fires would hit Baltimore’s westside neighborhood of Harlem Park. Fire box 14-1 was dispatched for a report of a shed fire in the rear of 1620 West Saratoga Street. When units arrived there was fire in the rear and it had extended into the back of several houses. All of them appeared vacant and one was a “Code X-Ray” and companies were not allowed to enter them. Exterior operations were ordered by Command. With the gusting winds the fire had gotten into the upper floors and rooves of three homes. A working fire assignment was ordered at 0802 hours.
Firefighters opened up the three dwellings involved and continued to fight the fire from outside using ladder pipes and handlines along with Tower 1. The fire was brought under control in about 45 minutes and as units were beginning to put up, Fire Box 8-30 was being struck out for a building fire in the area of Mulberry street and Arlington Avenue, about 10 blocks to the north and east of this fire. Heavy black smoke was visible from this location.
With permission from the Chief some of the units left this fire and headed to that location. Companies arrived and had a three-story vacant mansion surrounded by a chain-link fence, with heavy fire showing from the windows of the mansard type roof. Again exterior operations were ordered from the start. Most of the responding units were fill-ins so it took a little time to get set up for the fire fight.
The former mansion overlooks Lafayette Square Park and sits next to the modern 10-story Saint James Terrace high-rise Apartments. The “Sellers Mansion” was built in 1868 by Edward Davis as the principal residence of Matthew Bacon Sellers, Sr. who was the president of the Northern Central Railway at the time. It remained in the family until 1955 when the oldest son died in the home. Although carefully restored in the 1960’s and adapted to a variety of community uses through the early 1990’s the mansion stood vacant and in an advanced state of deterioration. It is the only remaining detached private residence on the Square, and one of the first residences constructed there. It was also listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2001.
Command arrived and ordered a working fire and second alarm. Strong gusting winds whipped the flames inside of the third floor area of the mansard roof. Tower 1 along with several ladder pipes and monitor pipes were set up on three sides of the 155 year-old structure and poured water into it. Several special calls were requested over the next hour to bring engine companies to supplement the water supply in the area. A Tower from Howard County was also special called to the scene.
At around 1000 hours someone noticed smoke coming from the roof of a dwelling in the 1000 block of West Lanvale Street, a half block east of the ongoing fire. Apparently embers were blown from the fire onto the roof of another home down the street. Several companies on that end of the fireground went down to investigate and found fire on the roof and inside of the third floor of 1023 West Lanvale Street. Several more Engine and Truck companies were requested to the scene. This was also a vacant structure and firefighters took care of this one from the outside. It was placed under control within 45 minutes.
The Sellers Mansion fire took about two hours to bring under control. One firefighter was injured and transported to Shock trauma. His injuries turned out to be minor and he was released. A previous fire struck the mansion in October of 2021, but was quickly extinguished with little damage. Demolition crews arrived at the scene later in the day and started to tear it down. On the following day the structurally unsound building was taken totally down.
Fire Investigation was on the scene of all three fires investigating the causes.