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BALTIMORE – Flames poured out of the second and third windows of an abandoned rowhome, lighting the early morning sky. Crews from multiple fire engines rushed inside, but within minutes the interior of the building collapsed, killing three firefighters and badly wounding a fourth. It was the Baltimore City Fire Department’s worst on-duty loss of life since the mid 1950s
“It was really heartbreaking for everybody there,” Councilwoman Odette Ramos told Fox News. “We just have to do more. We just can’t let something like that happen again.”
Vacant buildings burn at twice the national average in Baltimore, according to the city’s fire department. A fire in a long-abandoned home on Jan. 24, 2022, (left) killed three firefighters. (Courtesy of Baltimore Firefighters IAFF Local 734/Facebook)
3 BALTIMORE FIREFIGHTER DEATHS BEING INVESTIGATED AS HOMICIDES
The house on Stricker Street had been vacant for more than 10 years and experienced two previous fires, according to BCFD. The first fire, in 2015, resulted in a partial collapse that injured three firefighters and left the building compromised. Then on Jan. 24, 2022, Lt. Paul Butrim, Lt. Kelsey Sadler and firefighter Kenny Lacayo lost their lives.
Ramos took the news personally: Cleaning up the city’s vacant buildings has been one of her long-term priorities.
“We’ve been working on this for a long time and it is not enough,” she said. “And people have died.”
More than 14,000 vacant buildings are scattered across Baltimore, costing the city around $100 million per year in maintenance, fire department and police resources, according to a recent Johns Hopkins University initiative report. Baltimore had one of the highest vacancy rates in the country in 2019 at 8.1%.
A BCFD report after the firefighters’ deaths highlighted concerns with vacant buildings, which the department said burn at twice the national average in Baltimore.
Two firefighters embrace after a fire on Jan. 24, 2022, killed three members of the Baltimore…
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