Lewisdale house fire injures person who jumped from window to escape

Fire crews rushed to the 2000 block of Drexel Street in Lewisdale after a residential blaze trapped people inside a three-story multi-family building and forced at least one resident to leap from a window to get out.

The fire was reported Saturday evening, about 6:43 p.m. to 6:53 p.m., in the Takoma/Langley area of Prince George’s County. Flames were visible from the top floor when Prince George’s County Fire and EMS crews arrived, and Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service was called in to help as mutual aid. One person who jumped from the window was taken to the hospital with serious but non-life-threatening injuries.

The scene points to how quickly an apartment fire can turn into a life-or-death escape. Pete Piringer, the Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service chief spokesperson, described the incident as a top-floor fire with reports of people trapped inside. In a multi-family building, an upper-floor fire can cut off hallways, fill stairwells with smoke and leave windows as the only immediate way out.

Fire investigators were still working to determine what started the blaze. In Prince George’s County, Fire Investigations handles fires, explosions and other emergencies with unknown causes. That work will matter here because the difference between a survivable escape and a deadly one often comes down to details inside the home, including whether smoke alarms sounded early enough, whether exits were clear and whether residents had another route out when the primary exit failed.

County fire officials say Prince George’s County Fire/EMS offers free fire safety advisory inspections and smoke alarms, and that landlords or property owners are responsible for installing, repairing, maintaining and replacing alarms required by Maryland law. Those protections are especially important in dense neighborhoods like Lewisdale and Langley Park, where a fire in one unit can quickly threaten nearby households and pull resources from both Prince George’s and Montgomery counties.

The National Fire Protection Association says windows are a common secondary means of escape in residential fires when a primary exit is blocked. U.S. Fire Administration data show many residential fire injuries happen while people are trying to escape, a reminder that even a successful jump can leave someone badly hurt.

For Prince George’s County, the Lewisdale fire was more than a house fire. It was a close call that left one resident injured, sent multiple fire agencies to the scene and raised the same urgent question investigators now have to answer: what failed inside that building before the jump became the only way out.