BEL AIR, MD – Investigators with the Office of the Maryland State Fire Marshal’s office are continuing to determine the cause of a fatal fire this weekend. An investigation has been launched by the Office of the State Fire Marshal and the Harford County Sheriff’s Office following the death of a person in a fire early Saturday morning.
On Sunday, the body of an individual feared to have been inside the building when it collapsed was pulled from the burned-out rubble.
There was a reported house fire at 10 McGregor Way shortly after 7:00 a.m., and Bel Air Volunteer Company firefighters responded along with other local agencies. Initially, reports indicated an elderly couple may have been inside. It was concluded that the couple was not home; however, another family member may have been inside. Ultimately, the home collapsed due to the two-alarm blaze, which took firefighters nearly two hours to control.
An investigator located a victim inside the house Sunday afternoon using excavators provided by the State Highway Administration. The Office of the State Fire Marshal was contacted to investigate the incident. In order to determine the exact cause of death and to positively identify the victim, the victim was transported to Baltimore’s Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.
The Harford County Sheriff’s Office cooperated with detectives in the death investigation, which is standard operating procedure following a fatal fire.
As part of their investigation into the cause of the fire, investigators from the Howard County Department of Fire and Rescue Fire Marshal’s Office and the Office of the State Fire Marshals’ Major Incident Response Team (MIRT) assisted in removing a large quantity of debris on Monday morning.