Around 4:30 p.m. Sunday, March 8, Baltimore County 911 dispatchers began receiving multiple phone calls reporting a building fire in the area of Jensen Lane and Axis Court on the property of the Rosewood State Hospital in Owings Mills, MD (Fire Box 31-5).
The crew of Baltimore County Fire Department Engine 19 arrived to find heavy fire and smoke showing from a large three-story vacant building on the Rosewood complex. They requested a working fire dispatch. Firefighters initially attempted to attack the fire with handlines and ladder pipes and prevent its spread to an adjacent building and other exposures, but command soon ordered defensive operations as the building was vacant and unsafe to enter.
Fire extended into the second building and a second alarm was struck, bringing PVFC additional units to the scene.
Flying embers apparently ignited a third building several hundred feet away but quick work by firefighters prevented a significant fire in that exposure.
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