Just after 4 p.m. September 1, units were dispatched to a report of a house fire in the 5500 block of 47th Avenue in Riverdale Park. An engine from Riverdale Fire Station 7 arrived on the scene first and encountered a two-story wood frame house with an attached garage heavily involved with fire.
No one was home at the time of the fire, which appears to have started in a garage area. The garage housed three vehicles and a small boat. The fire spread rapidly throughout the garage and into the house. The house was located near the end of a one-way street in a fairly remote area of Riverdale Park. The fire had already spread through much of the house by the time units arrived.
Fiftyfive firefighters and paramedics operated on the scene of this blaze. In addition to Riverdale Fire Station 7, units from Bladensburg Fire Station 9, Hyattsville Fire Station 1, Riverdale Heights Fire Station 13 and Brentwood Fire Station 4 responded to the scene.
Exterior operations were used to knock the bulk of the fire down before any interior operations were performed. Extensive overhaul was required and fire investigators remained on the scene overnight in order to continue their investigation in the morning. The cause of the fire is currently under investigation and dollar estimates were not available.
