Blaze Destroys Garage, Two Cars in Courts of Whetstone

Update 7:15 p.m.: Fire investigators have traced Wednesday morning’s blaze in the Courts of Whetstone to “improperly discarded smoking materials” left in the home's garage.

Including the two cars in the garage, damage is estimated at more than $200,000.

Original story: No one was injured in an early morning blaze that broke out in the garage of a single-family home in the Courts of Whetstone.

A half-dozen fire trucks and more than 50 firefighters responded to the blaze on Rhodes Way, which started shortly before 7 a.m. The fire was subdued in less than 15 minutes, but not before it destroyed the garage and two cars inside it.

"We have no idea what caused the fire," said Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Battalion Chief Mark Davis. "It spread a little bit to the home, but we were able to cut it off."

Fire officials did not immediately know how many people were at home. "Everybody got out in time," Davis said.

The damage was enough that the tenants will have to be displaced, Davis said.

State tax records list the property to Walter and Nancy Dove. Walter died in December, said Patricia Cilimberg, who has lived next to the Doves since 1978.

“This is a pretty stable neighborhood. We all know each other here,” she said.