Overview
- Officials credit an unnamed Amazon driver with spotting the porch fire, calling 911 and helping the resident exit through a sliding door.
- About 35 firefighters from Whiteford and Bel Air volunteer companies arrived around 11:13 a.m. Wednesday and contained the single-alarm blaze within about 20 minutes.
- The Maryland State Fire Marshal determined discarded woodstove ashes on the porch ignited and started the fire.
- Three people were displaced, and damage was estimated at about $250,000, according to the fire marshal.
- Fire officials urge placing cooled ashes in a tightly covered metal container kept at least 10–20 feet from a home and dousing the contents with water.