Clinton Basement Fire Displaces Three Adults, No Injuries Reported

Three adults were displaced Sunday evening after a basement fire tore through a two-story single-family home on the 5500 block of Tinkers Creek Place in Clinton, an unincorporated community in the southern portion of Prince George's County. Prince George's County Fire/EMS (PGFD) crews arrived around 6:49 p.m., extinguished the blaze, and reported no injuries.

Fire investigators were on scene following suppression of the fire, and no official cause had been released. The Prince George's County Office of Emergency Management stepped in to assist the three displaced adults in the immediate aftermath.

The response was one of more than 400 incidents PGFD handles on any given day across its 499-square-mile service area. The department, the largest in Maryland and the 16th busiest in the United States, operates 45 Fire/EMS stations serving roughly 946,000 residents and logs more than 157,000 incidents per year. Of those, approximately 200 are structure fires, placing Sunday's Tinkers Creek Place call within a category the department's investigators handle with regularity. Roughly 75 percent of all PGFD calls are for EMS services.

The department's nearly 2,000 members are supported by a fleet that includes 42 basic life support ambulances, 12 advanced life support and paramedic units, 5 paramedic engine companies, and 8 paramedic ambulances, a scope of resources that reflects the dual fire-and-medical demands placed on the department daily.

PGFD is currently led by Fire Chief Thelmetria "Meme" Michaelides, who made history as the first African American woman to command the department. Under her leadership, the department has continued to rank among the most active combination fire departments in the country.

The cause of the Tinkers Creek Place fire remains under investigation.