3 Severn Group Home Fire Victims Names Released

SEVERN, MD — Authorities on Monday released the names of three people who were killed in a weekend fire at Arundel Lodge, a group home in Severn, and continue work to determine the cause of the blaze. Anne Arundel County Fire Department officials said the victims are: Walter McCardell, 61, a resident; William Garcia, 44, a resident; and Barbara Brown, 65, an employee of the home and a resident of Brooklyn.

Just after 10:45 p.m. Saturday, Anne Arundel County emergency dispatchers began receiving multiple calls reporting the home in the 7900 block of Stone Hearth Road was on fire. Occupants who escaped the blaze before firefighters arrived said someone may still have been inside. Firefighters who entered the burning home removed one victim who was declared dead at the scene. Further searches located two more victims who died in the house. Four other occupants escaped without injury.

The bodies of the deceased were taken to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Baltimore for identification and autopsy to determine the cause of death.

The fire was extinguished in about an hour by 45 firefighters from Anne Arundel County, Fort Meade and BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport.

The Anne Arundel County Fire Department Fire and Explosives Investigation Unit was on the scene Saturday night until the middle of the afternoon Sunday; there were working smoke alarms in the home. Members of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are assisting in the investigation. The cause of the fire remains undetermined.

Investigators ask that anyone with video or pictures from the fire, especially before firefighters arrived, contact them at 410-222-TIPS.

The three fatalities are the first fire-related deaths in Anne Arundel County in 2018.

Patch file photo