BALTIMORE — With each pass, the heavy equipment wipes away part of Northwest Baltimore’s history, which a four-alarm fire early Friday left behind.
“I was asleep,” said Zaid Albarmatli, the owner of Famous Food Mart, “Some people call me, the police, and they tell me, ‘There’s a fire around your store and house.’”
The fire started in a vacant building in the 22-hundred block of North Fulton Avenue, and fire crews arrived at 3:42 in the morning, about a minute after the call came in.
Still, with intense winds fueling the flames, they simply couldn’t stop it.
“This has been a wind-driven fire,” said Baltimore City Fire Chief James Wallace, “Crews were with the speed at which the fire was literally walking down the block as well as embers being blown up to two blocks away.”
Four-alarm fire ravages Northwest Baltimore community
A team from the American Red Cross arrived here on the scene during the night and they’re now helping a total of eight displaced people who have lost everything.
“Some of them just grabbed shoes, luckily, and their phones,” said the Red Cross’ Anthony Evans, “That was the biggest thing, and a lot of them had a lot of pets to get out so, luckily, they were able to get their pets out.”
Many of the small business owners also couldn’t salvage anything.
“I have a lot of stuff—-cigars, cigarettes, a lot of things. I lost everything now,” said Albarmatli.
Leaving them with an uncertain future.
“My business is for my family, for my kids, for my rent, for my mortgage,” he added, “I have no idea what I do now.”
