Two residents and an employee at the Arundel Lodge group home in Severn are dead after a fire Saturday night, county fire officials said.
Anne Arundel County firefighters responded to multiple calls for a home on fire in the 7900 block of Stone Hearth Road around 10:45 p.m. Saturday, Capt. Russ Davies said in a statement. Firefighters arrived to find heavy smoke coming from the back of the house.
Residents who had escaped the fire warned firefighters that someone might still be inside, Davies said.
Firefighters removed one resident from the house who was declared dead on the scene after paramedics could not resuscitate him. Another resident and an employee were later found dead in the house. Four residents escaped the house with no reported injuries.
It took 45 firefighters from Anne Arundel, Fort Meade and BWI about an hour to put the flames out, Davies said. The fire department’s Explosives Investigation Unit remained on the scene overnight and reported there were working smoke alarms in the home. Firefighters reported hearing the smoke alarms upon arrival, Davies said.
A neighbor across the street from the house said she saw the fire and heard three booms like an explosion. She said she could see people throwing oxygen tanks out of the house.
“All I could see was flames. People were hollering for help. It was awful,” Joyce Phillips said.
The deceased, two male residents and one female employee, were taken to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Baltimore for identification and autopsy. Their names have not yet been released.
The cause of the fire is still under investigation. No damage estimate has been given, but Davies said the home is likely a total loss.
Anyone with video or pictures from the fire is asked to call investigators at 410-222-TIPS.
The house is one of Arundel Lodge’s 32 residential rehabilitation homes in the county providing mental health and substance use treatment to more than 3,000 people a year.
In a statement from the nonprofit, Executive Director Mike Drummond said this is the first incident of its kind in the group’s 40-year-history. Arundel Lodge is working with police and fire to investigate the fire and notify family members of victims, the statement said.
“This is an incredibly difficult day for all of us and we will be providing support to family, friends and staff as we all process this tragedy,” Drummond said.
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