2-alarm townhouse fire in Laurel spreads to neighboring unit

Firefighters in Prince George’s County raced to the 14900 block of Ashford Court in Laurel just minutes after 4 a.m. Sunday, where a fire had started in the back of a two-story townhouse and spread into the neighboring home before crews knocked it down.

The Prince George’s County Fire and EMS Department sounded a second alarm to bring in more firefighters and keep the blaze from moving farther through the attached homes. One person was taken to the hospital for evaluation after the fire, which left officials without a released count of how many people were displaced.

The scene underscored how quickly fire can move through Laurel’s townhouse and rowhouse-style neighborhoods, where homes sit wall-to-wall and a blaze in one unit can quickly threaten the next. In this case, flames were reported coming from the rear of the home before extending into the adjacent unit, a pattern that can turn a single-house fire into a block-level disruption.

Laurel has seen similar fires in attached housing in recent years. A 2022 townhouse fire displaced eight people, adding to growing concern about the vulnerability of multi-unit homes when flames break through one structure and move into another. Another Laurel fire in an apartment building in December 2025 also forced residents out and led to arson charges in a separate case, showing that fire-related displacement has become a recurring problem for some neighborhoods.

No cause for Sunday’s fire had been released, and officials had not said how many households were forced out of their homes. For residents in Laurel’s attached-housing corridors, the latest blaze is another reminder that a fire in one unit can quickly become a neighboring problem, especially in the early morning hours when people are asleep and response times matter most.