Businesses damaged by two-alarm fire at warehouse in Anne Arundel County

BALTIMORE -- A warehouse was damaged by a two-alarm fire Saturday evening in Anne Arundel County.

Officials said the fire started in an unoccupied tractor supply business in the 400 block of Central Avenue in Davidsonville. Three businesses were impacted - outdoor equipment, septic and backhoe and tire businesses. 

The roof caved in and you can see through the entire building from the outside.

"It was pretty bad," said Rob Wilson, who owns Mid-Atlantic Outdoor Equipment, one of the businesses now dealing with excessive fire damage. "The whole back half of the building is just completely gone."

Wilson told WJZ his business has been in the warehouse since 2016.

"It's really tough cause this is the time of the year we make most of our money for the rest of the year, to keep us through the winter months," Wilson said.

Wilson was there all night as fire crews worked to control the flames, which continued into Sunday morning.

"Our units stayed on scene," said Don Cline, with the Anne Arundel County Fire Department. "There's a lot of clean up and a lot of things to do, investigation-wise, trying to determine the cause and origin." 

Firefighters told WJZ they believe the fire began in the back of the tractor supply business, which was not occupied at the time.  

"The building has three businesses inside the larger structure," Cline said. "It appears that two of them, all three of them, suffered some damage, but the inventory on the third business, it appears to be a lot of it, should be salvageable at this time."

Fire investigators said that because the fire was in a rural area, crews had to bring water back and forth in tankers and hoses. 

Crews said with back-up fire personnel at the fire, they were able to get the flames under control in a few hours.

"The firewall and the other engineering controls that were in place when this building was built seems to have helped in some capacity," Cline said.

And while the owners and employees continue to take in what happened, they remain hopeful. 

"I was talking to a guy who is going to assess it and see and try to makeshift work out of it and see," Wilson said. "Or we will look for a temporary home. We'll make something work."

"Firefighters said it took more than three hours to get the fire under control.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation.