Late-Night Blaze Damages Up to Ten Rowhomes on Clifton Avenue

A three-alarm fire tore through the 1500 block of Clifton Avenue in Penn-North late Monday night, escalating from a handful of vacant rowhomes to as many as ten structures before crews brought the flames under control in the early morning hours of Tuesday, March 10.

Baltimore City Fire Department crews were called to the scene shortly before 11:30 p.m. Monday. On arrival they found the fronts and backs of five rowhomes fully engulfed. All five carried a "Code X" designation, the label BCFD uses to warn firefighters against entering a building due to structural safety concerns.

The fire did not stay contained to those five properties. According to WMAR2 News, the blaze jumped from the initial vacant rowhome into neighboring structures and climbed to three alarms, ultimately damaging as many as ten houses. Of those, six were vacant and four were occupied; everyone inside the occupied homes managed to get out safely. No injuries were reported across all outlets covering the fire.

Firefighters attacked the blaze with hoses and a ladder truck. The water pressure required to knock down the flames proved powerful enough to collapse portions of the already-deteriorated buildings, sending bricks and charred lumber crashing onto the sidewalk below. Neighbors stood on the block watching sections of the structures give way as crews worked through the night.

As of early Tuesday morning, city fire officials had not released a cause. Investigators were on scene, and crews were still working to fully secure the area.

Penn-North has long contended with a high concentration of vacant and abandoned rowhouses, properties that present compounding hazards: structural instability, reduced visibility into ownership and upkeep, and the kind of rapid fire spread seen Monday night. The Code X designations on five of the initial structures underscored how compromised the buildings already were before the first flames appeared.

BCFD shared photographs from the scene, and the investigation into the cause remains ongoing.