24 Apartments Damaged In Fire At Odenton Complex; No Injuries Reported
ODENTON, Md. (WJZ)-- Scary moments for dozens of people at an apartment complex in Odenton as flames sweep through the building. Many are safe thanks to a quick-thinking neighbor.
Adam May has the story.
Twenty-four units at the Seven Oaks Apartments were heavily damaged Sunday night when a two-alarm fire broke out at the complex near Fort Meade.
"We drove up and saw smoke coming out of the peak of the roof," Bonnie McCammon, a resident of the complex, said.
McCammon also happens to be a volunteer firefighter and she jumped into action.
"We were knocking on doors and seeing if the handles were open," she said. "And anybody who didn't come out, we went into the apartment, cleared them and moved on to the next floor. We got everybody cleared out of the building before the first engine showed up."
Almost two dozen fire trucks responded from Anne Arundel County with backup from the airport.
"There was difficulty when the fire was moving through. We had some wind, so we went into a defensive mode and corrected the situation," Lt. Cliff Kooser of the Anne Arundel County Fire Department said.
Residents watched as their belongings went up in flames.
"A whole bunch of smoke and then fire. It was so big. It went over and across. It was so scary," resident Erin Pittman said.
"First thing we noticed there were spraying the apartment, right in our daughter's bedroom window," resident William Stauffer Jr. said.
But the important thing was that not a single resident or firefighter was hurt.
"The hard part is watching people lose their homes because as the roof caught on fire the whole of this went," McCammon said. "We actually took a few people into my apartment before the Red Cross got here, so we're all taking care of each other now."
The Red Cross is assisting families. There's no word on a cause.
