The fire started on an enclosed porch on the right side of a house on Declaration Court in Waldorf, Maryland. By the time it was out, six members of one family were dead, four of them children.
The Office of the State Fire Marshal said the other two victims were adults. Charles County sheriff’s deputies reached the house, in the 3000 block of Declaration Court, at around 8:40 a.m. on Sunday. The Waldorf Volunteer Fire Department and several surrounding agencies arrived less than a minute behind them, officials said.
Crews fought the fire for over an hour. Only then did recovery begin, and that was when all six victims were found.
Officials said three more people lived in the home. One man got out alive. The other two were not there at the time.
What investigators know
The official cause is still under investigation. First responders said they have no reason to think it was intentional.
“I can confirm that the fire did originate on the right side of the house within an enclosed porch,” said Oliver Alkire, the public information officer for the State Fire Marshal. “Certainly on the porch, you know, there’s multiple things – grills, smoking can be one of them, so we’re looking at all accidental causes.”
Alkire said it is the deadliest fire in Maryland in more than 10 years.
He also used the occasion to press for working smoke detectors. “The house was built in a year when they should’ve had hard-wired smoke alarms. I can’t confirm if they were actually activated. We have no reports of someone hearing a smoke alarm activating, so it just shows you the importance of how important those life-saving devices are.”
All six victims were taken to the Chief Medical Examiner in Baltimore for further investigation.
