Crime & Safety

Cause of Brush Fire Still Undetermined, Fire Chief Says

Montgomery County Fire Chief Bowers briefed residents on the brush fire at a meeting at Quince Orchard High School on Thursday.

Montgomery County Fire investigators have not yet determined the cause of the that struck Germantown and Darnestown in February. But Fire Chief Richard Bowers said the high winds were a factor.

In a briefing to the public held at on Thursday, Bowers said there were wind gusts of up to 60 mph and sustained winds of about 40 mph on Saturday, Feb. 19.

“That wind going across that open ground or those open areas dried out that top layer of brush and vegetation very quickly,” Bowers said. “It was sunny, relatively warm. … That in itself is a recipe for disaster.”

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The fire covered a total of 460 acres and came within tens of feet of neighborhoods. Bower said 27 structures were damaged, included several homes, but 70 structures were saved.

Mike Sederholm lives at the most northern tip of Brandon Way Road, which backs up to Seneca Creek Park. He said he watched as the fire spread towards his neighborhood.

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He said he first called 911 at 10:32 a.m. when he spotted the fire in Seneca Creek. Then he watched the fire spread through the open area to his neighborhood in just 6 minutes, Sederholm said.

“My last call [to 911] was ‘It’s on my house,’” said Sederholm, who called 911 four times between 10:30 and 11:30 a.m. “Just then three firefighters came out and immediately went to work. … It was like something out of a movie, the way they arrived out of the smoke.”

The corner and frame of his garage and part of his back deck were destroyed, but firefighters managed to save his house.

Volunteer firefighters and personnel and equipment from Washington, D.C., Fairfax, Frederick and Carroll County supported Montgomery County Fire and Rescue, which were also responding to other emergencies throughout the county.

Bowers said fire and rescue responded to an additional 30 brush fires that day. 

A total of 35 engines, 5 aerial units, 1 heavy rescue squad, 13 brush trucks, 3 tankers, 7 ATV’s, 5 EMS, 3 canteen trucks and 350 firefighters were engaged that day.

Of those firefighters, 220 were volunteer, said Eric Bernard, President of the Rockville Volunteer Fire Department.

Tony Roman, a volunteer firefighter from Rockville, was on the scene from 10:30 a.m. to 8 p.m.

“We usually run little brush fires, but in my 10 years of working this is the only one that has been this big,” Roman said. “We were working to protect structures, to save life and property.”

Five firefighters were treated for injuries, but Bowers reported all are now in good health.

Several of the firefighters who attended the meeting on Thursday thanked community members who provided support — some with garden hoses and buckets, others with supplies for the fire and rescue crews.

Eric Abramson, a neighbor to Sederholm, transported firefighters and supplies into the woods with his ATV.

“We all had buckets and hoses,” said Abramson, who lost part of his shed in the fire.

Several residents who attended the meeting reported hearing a transformer explosion at the Pepco substation around 9:30 a.m. that Saturday.

“We had heard this before, but this time it was bigger and the smoke volume was bigger,” said a resident of the Monarch Vista Drive in Germantown, which is about half a mile from the substation.

Marsha Abramson said she saw the substation on fire when she drove by at 10:30 a.m.

Pepco Media Relations Manager Bob Hainey said they are working with Montgomery County Fire authorities.

"We are working with them and giving them all the information we have," Hainey told Patch.


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