Ocean Pines Fire Department to hold neighborhood canvas on fire safety following fatal fire
OCEAN PINES, Md- The Ocean Pines Fire Department will hold a community canvas at 11 a.m. Saturday to help answer community questions and promote fire safety following a fatal blaze that claimed the life of a 62-year-old man in Ocean Pines Tuesday night.
The fire drew a response from fire companies across Worcester and Sussex County, as they worked to knock down the fire inside the home and prevent it from spreading to neighboring homes.
“Spread is a serious problem we have here because of how close our homes are, so typically when we have a house fire exposures are a huge concern it’s something our chief identified right away was the exposure directly behind the home and when we got there the brush was starting to burn toward the other house we were able to knock that down and make sure the house behind and next to it weren’t impacted,” said OPFD Lt. Joe Enste.
Enste says when firefighters arrived at the residence, smoke was up to their knees with both the first, second, and attic floors on fire, despite a response time of less than a few minutes.
“Fires today are burning much faster, the flashover time used to be 30 minutes but it can be as short as 4 minutes in a modern home,” Enste said.
He says firefighters had to evacuate the home at one point to continue their efforts to knock down the fire, at which point they resume their search and recovery efforts.
“They took an offensive fire attack going to knock down the fire and effect a search due to the volume of fire and the fact it reached the attic the structure was evacuated and regroup after that we were able to knock it down and continue our searching that’s when we, unfortunately, did find a victim inside the house,” Enste said adding “this was a tragic event This gentleman was known in the community to folks have commented and said they often saw him out walking his dog.”
Enste says he hopes the community canvas can help answer residents’ questions on the event and provide some measure of closure to community members.
“We are going to be knocking on doors answering questions and our goal is to prevent something like this from happening again,” he said.
A joint investigation was conducted by the Worcester County Fire Marshal’s Office and the Ocean Pines Police Department into the cause that remains ongoing.
Investigators were assisted by the Ocean City Fire Marshal’s Office, Maryland State Fire Marshal’s Office K9 Unit, and the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. The victim has been identified as 62-year-old Timothy Jay Cooper of that residence.
The exact cause of the fire is considered undetermined originating in the laundry room area of the home. Smoke alarms were present at the time of the fire.
