On Thursday, April 23, 2026, at approximately 5:40 p.m., firefighters from Solomons, Prince Frederick, St. Leonard, Bay District, and Hollywood Volunteer Fire Departments were dispatched to the 3000 block of Calvert Boulevard in Lusby, for the reported kitchen fire.
911 callers reported a fire in the kitchen with hoarding conditions inside the home.
A short time after dispatch, the caller called back reporting fire through the roof. The incident was upgraded to a working fire dispatch, which alerted additional firefighters from Bay District, Hollywood, Leonardtown, Second District, and Huntingtown.
Crews arrived on the scene to find fire showing from multiple sides of the 1-story single family residence.
Firefighters quickly confirmed all occupants were out of the residence and deployed multiple attack lines and made entry into the residence.
Upon entering the residence, crews found extreme hoarding conditions within the home and advised it will hamper operations and fire extinguishment efforts.
The fire was controlled within 30 minutes, with crews operating on the scene for over 3 hours.
The fire was deemed accidental and caused by food on the stove which quickly spread to the kitchen and additional rooms. The fire marshal was not contacted or requested.
Two firefighters were evaluated for exhaustion related injuries, and both signed care refusal forms on the scene. No injuries were reported.
All of the displaced occupants are being assisted by friends and the American Red Cross.
This is sadly one of many fires that our First Responders have encountered hoarding conditions at. We have joined some local fire departments to bring attention to this mental health condition that is causing even more dangers to their job.
On Friday, February 20, 2026, Mechanicsville Volunteers arrived on the scene of a reported house on fire with the homeowner trapped inside. When crews attempted to enter the home, they found extreme hoarding conditions which severely hampered search and rescue efforts. The 69-year-old homeowner sadly succumbed to the fire.
On March 11th, 2026, Leonardtown Volunteers responded to a reported house on fire with possible entrapment, upon arrival crews found a fire inside the home which had extreme levels of hoarding that not only posed a serious danger to firefighters due to multiple windows, doorways, and exits being completely unreachable and blocked, but hampered fire extinguishment efforts severely and resulted in hot spots and fire to spread for the majority of the incident. Crews operated on the scene for over 2 hours.
Just days later, March 13th, 2026, Mechanicsville Volunteers again responded to a reported working structure fire and arrived to find fire showing, when making entry into the residence, crews found hoarding conditions which hampered firefighting efforts.
On March 25th, 2026, firefighters in St. Mary’s County faced two fire incidents that contained hoarding conditions that imposed difficulties for firefighters to either accessing the residence and seat of the fire, or maneuvering the tight spaces it caused.
The fire in Scotland resulted in two pets dead, and two teens suffering serious injuries which required both victims to be flown by our Maryland State Police Aviation Command to the MedStar Health Burn Center at MedStar Washington Hospital Center.
The second fire occurred in a motel in Lexington Park which resulted in the death of one cat.
