Salisbury house fire kills two people Saturday morning

SALISBURY, Md.- A raging fire ripped through a home on First Street in Salisbury early Saturday morning killing a 62-year-old man and an 82-year-old woman.

“The occupants were unrelated, they were in separate apartments, but they were not able to make it out before they succumbed to either the smoke or heat,” Matthew Stevens,
Maryland, Deputy Chief State Fire Marshal, said.

The Salisbury Fire Department received a call just before 3 a.m. that a two story, single family home, converted into seven apartments,  was up in flames.

Nearby fire companies and the Office of the Maryland State Fire Marshal also responded to the two-alarm fire.

“We saw the fire venting out of the windows,” Stevens said.

The Deputy Chief State Fire Marshal said the fire started on the first floor.

A neighbor said what she witnessed was emotional.

“I kept hearing sirens, a lot of fire trucks,” Juanita Fieeman, a neighbor, said. “We looked out of the kitchen, I woke up and I said come look look the building is on fire it has been burnt.”

We are told by the Deputy Chief,  7 other residents who were in the house made it out safely, due to working smoke alarms.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation.

“We cannot rule out the possibility of an electric space heater being too close to common combustibles,” Stevens said.

The Deputy Chief added that this tragic incident should be a reminder to other residents in the area.

“To check their smoke alarms, to make sure they are working properly, and to just be mindful of heaters or heat sources of any type and not getting combustibles too close to them where they could ignite,” Stevens said.

We are told 35 firefighters from Salisbury, Fruitland, Delmar,  Hebron, and Westside reported.

The scene was controlled in just over an hour.

The Deputy Chief State Fire Marshal added that both bodies are in transport to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Baltimore for exact cause of death and identification.