GAITHERSBURG, Md. (WUSA9) -- A boy is dead and a woman is injured after a fiery crash in Gaithersburg early Tuesday morning.
Captain Paul Starks, spokesman for the Montgomery County Police Department, says the crash occurred in the area of Fields Rd. at I-370/Sam Eig Highway around 3:38 a.m. A boy, estimated to be around 10 years of age, was pronounced dead at the scene. The woman who was driving suffered burns to her hands and was taken to a local hospital in serious condition. Officials say that she is expected to be okay.
A Montgomery County EMS crew was driving by the scene and spotted the car fire. The woman told them that there was another person in the vehicle. Rescuers broke glass to try to get into the vehicle and then extinguished the fire, but could not get the boy out of the backseat of the vehicle, say officials.
"They were able to get on the scene and use their extinguishers to knock out the fire," said Pete Piringer, with Montgomery County Fire and Rescue. But, it was too late. "Firefighters had to force entry into the vehicle but they were unable to reach the child," Piringer said.
At this time, it appears the woman was driving eastbound on Sam Eig when, for some unknown reason, her car crossed over the median, crashed and caught on fire.
The area of I-370 in both directions between Diamondback Drive and Fields Rd was closed for more than three hours. It has been reopened.
The names have not been released and the relationship between the woman and the boy is not known.
Meanwhile police, fire investigators and accident reconstruction crews are working to find out what happened and why.
"That's definitely one of the questions, where the woman was coming from and the circumstances, why she had the boy out at 3:30 in the morning," says Lt Dave McBain, the Deputy Director of Traffic Division for Montgomery County Police.
Investigators ask that witnesses or anyone with information call 301-279-8000
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