MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Md. — Two people are dead after a massive fire broke out at a two-story Montgomery County home late Monday night.
Firefighters with the Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service responded to Oriental Street, off of Aspen Hill Road, in Rockville around 11:15 p.m. after a report of a house fire. At the scene, they found a single family home engulfed in flames with heavy fire showing.
The fire was coming from the ground floor with people trapped inside the home, the fire department said. By 12 a.m. on Tuesday, the two people that were inside were rescued and the majority of the fire was knocked down. Less than 15 minutes later, the fire was put out.
Pete Piringer, the public information officer with the fire department, said that the two people that were rescued were found unconscious in an upstairs bedroom. One resident of the home was able to rescue themselves and was found outside.
Two adults, a man and a woman, were taken to the hospital to be treated for life-threatening injuries. The man was pronounced dead at the hospital, Piringer said.
On Wednesday, the fire department announced woman had died as a result of her injuries.
The victims have only been identified as a woman in her 60s and a man in his 80s.
After arriving, officials also said that the fire did extend from the lower level of the home to the second floor. A total of about 75 firefighters responded to the scene to help extinguish the flames from multiple local stations. The Red Cross was notified and will assist the family that has been displaced that include one family - five adults and two children.
The fire, which started in the basement's electrical panel, is said to have been electrical in nature, Piringer said. The damages are estimated at greater than $225,000.
At the scene, WUSA9's Evan Koslof learned that the home housed a family of five in the downstairs unit, while the upstairs unit held a family of three. The upstairs unit consisted of the family of five's godparents and the godmother's father.
Further investigation found that the husband and wife were awake when they smelled smoke. When the wife went to check on her elderly parent upstairs, the husband and wife got separated.
The husband tried to put the fire out, but was unsuccessful. That's when he evacuated the others from the home. The wife and her elderly parent were kept from getting out of the house because of smoke and flames on the second floor. They were rescued by firefighters, both in cardiac arrest. The woman was resuscitated. The elderly parent died at the hospital.