Officials say he was suffering from smoke inhalation.
Urbana, Md (KM) One man was taken to University of Maryland Shock Trauma in Baltimore Monday night as the result of a house fire in the Urbana area.
Deputy Fire Chief Tom Coe with Frederick County Division of Fire and Rescue Services says fire fighters from Frederick and Montgomery Counties were dispatched at around 7:00 PM to the 8300 block of Sharon Drive in the Sugarloaf Estates community for a house fire with someone trapped. “Initial arriving units from the Urbana station did find one adult male in the structure who was alive,” says Coe. “They immediately extricated him from the building and immediately started performing emergency medical care.”
The man was taken by ambulance to Shock Trauma to be treated for smoke inhalation. Coe says the occupant was listed in critical condition. No one was else was injured.
“The initial arriving units found smoke showing from the single story, single family house. Units did find fire in the basement,” he says. The flames were brought under control shortly before 8:00 PM.
Coe says a tanker task force was called to the scene. “That’s common practice in areas of Frederick County without fire hydrants to provide water for fire suppression,” he says. “We use the tanker task force to transport water to the scene by tanker to be used use for fire extinguishing purposes.”
There were initial reports that the house was struck by lightning. “There was a thunderstorm that passed through the area during the initial dispatch of this call. That is certainly one of the things that the Fire Marshal’s Office is looking into. But the cause has not been officially determined yet,” says Coe.
Investigators with the County Fire Marshal’s Office will be trying to determine a cause and damage estimate from the fire. But Coe says the house did sustain “a fair bit of damage.”
By Kevin McManus