HAMPDEN, Md. — You might not expect this block to be a source of inspiration - with its condemned notices, scorched homes, and the smell of smoke still hanging in the air. But that just means you haven't met the people who live here. Like the pastor who refuses to give up after her church has been hit by what feels like back-to-back fires. Or the 82 year-old woman who refuses to feel sorry for herself after losing her home.
Hear from residents following the fire on Keswick Road Wednesday morning
"I'm very lucky, very lucky, very lucky, very lucky. I'm alive. I might not have been, might not have been," the woman, who asked us not to publish her name, told WMAR-2 News on Wednesday.
Back in October, a massive fire destroyed 10 of the row homes on the 3400 block of Keswick Road. The home in the middle - now an empty space - collapsed. The couple inside did not survive.
"One of the things that came out of October was a togetherness of the community," Pastor Simone Gibson from Pathway Fellowship Church said. "So there's several neighbors that I stay in touch with even though they aren't members of the church, just we connected."
She said at 2:30 Wednesday morning, one of the neighbors texted her: "And said oh my gosh it's another fire."
Billy Sillaman's first thought was - not again. He helped rescue three of his neighbors last year during October fire. With 10 row homes left vacant, there was another fire in December, then another just this past Saturday. On Wednesday morning, three of those vacant homes went up in flames once more.
"But it’s so smoky, you couldn’t see it. I looked this way and I looked this way to make sure to my neighbors [were ok] and I said it's gotta be across the street again," Sillaman said. "And it was, it was across the street again."
The owners of the homes were in the middle of the long process of rehabbing these properties.
"So, we were in the process of interviewing. We had an architect lined up. We were going to have this done," the 82 year-old homeowner we spoke to told us. "At that point, on Saturday, my house was OK. Oh, it was a mess, but it was salvageable."
But now?
"These houses are coming down today. It is an emergency," Baltimore City Councilwoman Odette Ramos told WMAR-2 News.
The woman we talked to is taking it in stride, counting her blessings after surviving the October fire. It was a close call that morning; she was trapped behind a locked door and had to be rescued.
“I’m basically very happy and I plan to stay that way. There will be moments. There have been some moments, but I don't expect that to take over my life. But yeah, it's, it's not what I planned to do at 82 either, but, anyway,” the homeowner we talked to said, shrugging her shoulders.
Next door, at Pathway Fellowship Church Pastor Gibson tells us they had just finished renovations from the October fire on Monday.
"We are not defeated but we certainly are a little devastated because we have to start the process all over again," Pastor Gibson said. "Our basement is flooded. Several of the rooms are damaged severely. We're not really sure what will happen. Our siding has melted, so we've got quite a bit of work to do."
Councilwoman Ramos, who represents the Hampden neighborhood, says these fires are a prime example of why fixing up vacant properties has become her signature issue.
"Renovating the properties is my top priority in terms of what we need to do to grow our city because then they'll be more housing for people, but also making sure that our elders and others that are living here for a long time and have a vacant property next to them that they are safe," Ramos told WMAR-2 News.
In regards to the vacant properties on Keswick Rd., she said, "There was a break-in in December; there's been a couple of break-ins. And so we did have tower lights and stuff at the very beginning of all of this, both after the October fire and after the December fire. But I want to make sure that we're being much more consistent in terms of getting the lighting and the cameras and things like that here to protect the rest of the homes."
The Baltimore City Fire Department says the cause and origin of the fire is still under investigation.