On Sunday, October 13, 2019, at approximately 5:40 a.m., 42 firefighters from Charles and St Mary’s County, and King George, Virginia responded to 9419 Fendall Lane in Newburg, for the reported structure fire.
Crews arrived on the scene to find nothing evident from a two story split foyer residence. Upon further investigation, firefighters found a fire in the kitchen that was extinguished by the homeowner.
Firefighters reported that an occupant of the home advised they had kitchen fire hours before the 911 call and that the occupant extinguished the fire and went back to sleep. Another homeowner came home, smelt smoke and saw the kitchen was burned and called 911.
The Maryland State Fire Marshal responded to the scene and deemed the fire accidental due to unattended cooking, The fire originated in the area of the kitchen stove and extended to surrounding cabinetry. The fire was extinguished by an occupant of the home prior to the fire department’s arrival.
There were no injuries as a result of this incident. Smoke alarms were present but did not activate due to the batteries being removed.
The homeowners/occupants were identified as Eric Smith; Sharneen Sloan, with the estimated loss of structure and contents over $10,000.00
