A woman has died after a three-alarm fire broke out at an apartment building Saturday morning in Silver Spring, Maryland. At least 15 others were injured in the blaze. Authorities said one person was in critical condition and several residents were hospitalized after the fire — originating in the living room of a seventh-floor apartment — caused approximately $2 million in damages and displaced more than 400 residents.
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Two dogs and one cat also died in the fire, according to Montgomery County Fire & Rescue spokesman Pete Piringer. Three firefighters, of the 100 that responded to the fire, sustained non-life-threating injuries and were treated and released.
Crews responded to calls for a fire at the Arrive Silver Spring apartment complex at around 6 a.m., Piringer said.
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Firefighters were able to put out the flames, but heavy smoke remained throughout the building. “They were faced with a lot of chaos,” Piringer told WTOP’s Stetson Miller. “They had a significant fire on the seventh floor [with] heavy, thick black smoke and heat.” Rescue crews helped get residents out of the building, including some trapped in the building’s hallways and on balconies. “We were on the balcony of our neighbor’s apartment, trying to be as (far) away from the fire as we could. We couldn’t get down the stairs because there’s just too much smoke,” a resident told Miller. Our news partners at NBC Washington spoke with one resident who feared for their life. “It was all black in the stairwell. I couldn’t breathe, my eyes were watering up, and so I said, ‘You know what, I’m not going to make it,’’’ resident Stephen Wilkes said. “It was wild.” Below is the area where the fire broke out: [google_map latitude=”38.998704″ longitude=”-77.031054″ zoom=”15″ height=”300px” location_label=”Fire in downtown Silver Spring” dynamic_map=”false”] WTOP’s Matt Small, Ciara Wells, Tadiwos Abedje, Ivy Lyons and Stetson Miller contributed to this report.
