Joppa House Fire Displaced Seven: Fire Marshal

A weekend house fire in Joppa resulted in $50,000 in damage and displaced seven individuals, according to the Office of the State Fire Marshal.

Unattended cooking caused the blaze, which was ruled accidental and affected two homes, the fire marshal reported.

At 1:56 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 12, crews were dispatched to the 100 block of Kenyon Court in Joppa, where fire had broken out in a two-story duplex, the Joppa-Magnolia Volunteer Fire Company reported.

A resident who had been cooking on the stove left the kitchen for four to five minutes and went upstairs when she started to smell smoke, the report said. She returned to find the kitchen was ablaze, according to the report.

There were no working smoke alarms in the home, the report said.

The 24-year-old, who was home alone at the time, had been getting ready to cook hush puppies and put a skillet on the stove, the fire marshal reported. Minutes later, she found heavy fire on the stove spreading to the cabinets, according to the fire marshal.

Forty firefighters—from Joppa-Magnolia, Bel Air, Abingdon, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Kingsville and White Marsh—responded to the incident, bringing the fire under control in 20 minutes, the fire marshal reported.

The home where the fire started sustained $30,000 in structural damage; items worth a total of $20,000 were also lost, according to the fire marshal.

Seven adults who lived in the home were displaced as the result of the fire, which did not cause any injuries, the fire marshal reported.

There was minor smoke damage to the adjacent home, the report said.

Photo Credit: Joppa-Magnolia Volunteer Fire Company.