Burtonsville Truck 15 ladders the fire apartment.  Photo by Doug Walton

Tower 10 (right) and Truck 12 ladder the fire floor.  Photo Courtesy of Hyattsville VFD

January 13, 2003.  Shortly before midnight Box Alarm 10-17 was dispatched for a reported mattress on fire in apartment 93C at the Middletowne Apartments, 14800 4th Street.  The building is located behind the Laurel Mall on 4th Street.  First arriving unit, Engine 101, reported nothing evident.  Moments later, it was upgraded to smoke showing.  First arriving crews to the 9th floor encountered heavy smoke conditions with several obvious civilian rescues.  Crews led residents out of the thick black smoke to safety of the stairs or their outside balconies.  Residents that took to the balconies were rescued by ladder trucks and brought to safety.  Several hundred residents were forced out of their apartments and into the Laurel Mall where an emergency shelter was established.  The fire was contained to one apartment and extinguished in about 25 minutes.  However, smoke and water damage made most of the 9th and 10th floors uninhabitable.  No fire fighter injuries were reported.

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