Cause Of Fire Determined That Killed 3 At Severn Group Home

SEVERN, MD — Authorities on Tuesday released the cause of last month's fire that killed two residents and an employee at Arundel Lodge, a group home in Severn. Anne Arundel County Fire Department officials said the accidental fire was the result of an electrical fault in a duplex electrical receptacle located in a rear bedroom of the residence.

The victims who died in the blaze 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.

The evening of April 21, 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 had been alerted by working smoke alarms and escaped the blaze before firefighters arrived said someone may still have been inside. Firefighters reported heavy fire from the rear of the single-family dwelling when they arrived, but immediately entered to find 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 determined the case of the fire. Members of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives assisted in the investigation.

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

Patch file photo