FORESTVILLE, Md. — A large fire damaged a condominium building in Prince George’s County Tuesday afternoon. The fire broke out shortly before 4 p.m. in Forestville at the Holly Hill Condominium complex, off Donnell Place, near State Route 4.
The fire impacted 24 units in the condominium building, according to Prince George’s County Fire and EMS Spokesperson Veronica Marshall. She added that no residents or firefighters were hurt.
A man named “Marcus” observed the fire from his condo across the condominium complex. He told WUSA9 he heard a woman yell shortly before the fire engulfed the first and second floors of her building.
“The fourth floor went up, and the roof blew and it shot debris to the other end of the field,” he said.
PGFD has not determined the cause of the fire.
The department said when crews got to the scene, they could not use a private fire hydrant right next to the building on fire because it was inactive. She said crews first relied on water from their firetrucks before using a Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission hydrant instead.
“That’s part of our standard operating procedure,” she said. “We know that we can get a higher flow from them. So, that’s where we look to first, depending on the size of the fire, and on this one, that’s what we wanted to start with.”
Marshall said the Red Cross and the Prince George’s County Office of Emergency Management are both helping to provide assistance to families who were displaced during the fire.