BALTIMORE — Six children were found dead after a fiery house collapse that injured four other family members who escaped from the home in Northeast Baltimore’s Cedmont neighborhood Thursday morning, the city Fire Department said.
The first of the children’s bodies was recovered about 10:30 a.m., Baltimore Fire Department spokesman Chief Roman Clark said. While the excavator cleared debris, firefighters searched by hand for the others.
The children who died were a 9-month-old boy, a 2-year-old boy, a pair of 3-year-old twin girls, and two girls, ages 10 and 11, according to the Fire Department.
The mother and two other children, ages 4 and 5, remain in critical condition at an area hospital, Clark said. An 8-year-old who helped carry the two toddlers out is expected to be released from the hospital Thursday.
Rep. Elijah E. Cummings’ office identified the woman as Katie Malone, a special assistant who has worked in the congressman’s Catonsville office for nearly 11 years handling issues such as immigration, postal services and the military, including Service Academy nominations.
“Sadly, six of her nine children perished. It’s a very difficult time for our office,” Cummings told reporters at a news conference Thursday morning.
Cummings said he spoke to Malone’s husband at length, and he told Cummings that Malone “is going to be OK.” Three of the nine children survived, the husband told Cummings.
In a statement, he said “My staff is a family and this unimaginable tragedy is shocking and heartbreaking to us all. I again ask for your prayers.”
Family for Malone could not be reached Thursday morning.
“A tragedy like this touches everybody in our city,” Mayor Catherine E. Pugh said at a Thursday afternoon news conference outside the house.
“To know that so many children are not going to be with us as a result of this incident is so painful,” the mayor said. “What I want to ask Baltimore to do is to pray for the family. … It’s hard to say anything other than to pray for the family.”
The fire was so intense when firefighters responded that it had partially melted a car parked outside, Pugh said.
Fire Chief Niles Ford recalled arriving early in the morning to a painful scene: three of his firefighters each had taken a knee in the front yard, having been unable to get inside.
“We did everything we could, Chief,” he said one told him.
“I know you did,” he replied.
The fire had engulfed all three stories of the house on Springwood Avenue when firefighters arrived about 12:30 a.m., Clark said.
Fire officials are investigating what caused the fire.
The home is in the Cedmont neighborhood just a few blocks from the Baltimore City-Baltimore County line. The front wall of the home was charred and buckled, with debris strewn across the front yard. Officials say the second floor partially collapsed. The third floor area had collapsed, with the spotlight from a ladder truck shining into the home as fire crews worked outside.
State tax information says the home encompasses approximately 2,000 square feet and was originally built in 1910.
Neighboring homes showed slight damage — siding had melted from one of the homes — but fire crews appear to have been able to keep the blaze to the stand alone residence.
Neighbors said the family was friendly, that they always said hello when walking to and from school.
City schools CEO Sonja Santelises said officials are waiting for more information on those involved, but will offer support to the family and schools involved.
“I am heartbroken by the devastating reports of last night’s fire, and I pray for the children and family who were trapped in this tragedy,” she said.
City Councilman Brandon M. Scott, who represents the area, said the fire “is truly a tragedy and is devastating to our community.”
Linda Gruzs, 64, president of the Cedmont Community Improvement Association, said she did not know the family but said her phone was ringing all morning from concerned neighbors. She said there have been more younger families moving into the community.
She awoke to sirens and then saw flames coming from the home a block away.
“I was asleep and I heard all these sirens. That’s when I saw all the flames and all of the commotion. It was just terrible,” she said.
“It’s not something you want to see. I kept praying please let everyone get out safe. I was just heartsick when I heard it was full of children,” she said.
Robert Spencer, 51, who lives across the street, was roused from his bed around midnight by a loud boom and commotion outside.
“I heard some glass break,” he said. “I happened to look out my window and I seen the flames.”
Spencer said he hurried outside just as the children’s mother came running around the side of the burning house. Spencer gave her his jacket and began searching for a way into the fire-engulfed home.
“I was so emotional,” Spencer said. “I said, ‘Where’s the babies at?’ She said ‘They’re in the house.’ I said, ‘Please, I’ve got to go get them.’”
The fire was too powerful, Spencer said. Out of concern for his safety, his family restrained him from going inside.
“The flames was coming from everywhere,” he said. “You could feel the heat.”
Unable to help, Spencer went back home and tried to sleep. He couldn’t. All he could hear in his head were the children’s cries from inside the house.
“It’s just so emotional — I cried all night,” he said.
William Gray, 37, another neighbor on the block, said the fire appeared to have started on the enclosed front porch and spread rapidly — “almost in no time” — to the rest of the house.
“It took them a while to battle the blaze,” he said. “As they watered it down, it continued to flare up.”
Gray said he didn’t know the family personally but always exchanged hellos when he saw the children playing in the neighborhood.
“You’d see them outside playing all the time,” he said. “Pretty personable family, they speak to you every time you see them.”
Lacy Rowan, who lives up the street, said she and her husband heard noise on the block about 12:45 a.m., but didn’t think anything of it because they live just off Belair Road, a busy city thoroughfare. When they ventured outside four hours later, their street was swimming with emergency crews.
“My heart just sank, because I knew there was a family with children in that home,” Rowan said. “I’ve seen them in my everyday passing, when the children walk to school. I’ve seen them playing in the front yard, on the front porch. My heart’s just heavy.”
Jacqueline Price, 55, could smell the smoke about 1 a.m. during her overnight shift at the Maryland School for the Blind nearby.
Price said she alerted her building’s security guard, who told her about the fire. She lives nearby on Springwood Avenue, so she called a local television station to ask for the address to see if it was her house.
“I needed to know because I have a husband that’s home that’s had a stroke,” she said.
Price stood with other neighbors watching firefighters working outside the still-smoldering home.
“It just looks like everything just caved in,” she said. “That’s really sad. That’s heartbreaking to see that.”
Mark Hopkins, 44, said he used to live on Lasalle Avenue nearby and stopped on his way through the neighborhood as the excavator operator began slowly removing the blackened remains of the roof from the wreckage.
Hopkins, who said he works as a heavy construction equipment operator, didn’t envy the contractor who was brought in to remove the debris. He noted the slow, careful pace.
“He has a lot of heart to do that,” he said. “He’s actually surgically removing the stuff, taking his time, not trying to hurt anything or mess up any evidence or anything they need to look through.”
Baltimore police spokesman T.J. Smith said on Twitter: “My prayers are with this family and the first responders. An absolute tragedy. … My goodness.”
The fire follows a difficult December for Baltimore fire crews. Last month saw more than twice the number of fire deaths compared with the previous year. Four young children and a 90-year-old woman died in fires in the city in December. Sixteen people died in fires in Baltimore in 2016.
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(The Baltimore Sun’s Erica L. Green and Luke Broadwater contributed to this report.)
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