BALTIMORE — A mid-block rowhome almost entirely reduced to rubble by the fire on Guilford Avenue, but in what was left standing at the back of the structure, searchers found the victim they’d been looking for.
“We began our recover efforts about 8:30am and now, at this time, unfortunately a body was recovered,” said Chief of Staff Veobia Akilo of the Baltimore City Fire Department, “The cause of the fire right now remains undetermined.”
The initial call for a fire came out about 12:30 on Thursday and when firefighters arrived here, they found flames coming from the second and third floors of a townhouse, which in now no longer visible.
Woman found dead, firefighter hurt after 3-alarm fire rips through East Baltimore rowhomes
RELATED: Woman found dead, firefighter hurt after 3-alarm fire rips through East Baltimore rowhomes
Cell phone video captured in real time showed firefighters attacking the flames from above and below.
“I heard a few loud kind of explosions almost,” said Tim Sharma, one of the victim’s neighbors, “It sounded like glass breaking. Honestly, it sounded like somebody was smashing up a car or something like that… a couple of times very loudly and then I look over and there’s just plumbs of fire gushing out of the house out of the top floor.”
For now, fire officials are not identifying the victim except to confirm she was a female, but to family members who stood by during the search awaiting word of the 70-year-old victim, the mother of four was a matriarch and so much more.
“She worked for the DPW,” a nephew told us who did not want to be identified, “She’s been there for over 30 years. She was thinking about retiring, but she didn’t want to, because all she was going to do was sit in the house and do nothing and spend more money, but again, I love you, Aunt Paula. You’re my Number Three and I’m your Number Five.”
