2 Displaced; $200K In Damage Caused By Rockville Basement Fire

Updated (11 p.m.): This story was updated with information about the estimated damage to a single-family home in Rockville caused by a Tuesday morning fire.

ROCKVILLE, MD — A malfunction caused a CPU to overheat, which led to a fire that resulted in an estimated $200,000 in damage to a Rockville home on Tuesday morning, according to Pete Piringer, a spokesman with the Montgomery County Fire & Rescue Service.

The fire occurred inside a sound-proofed room in the basement of a single-family home in the 11700 block of Rocking Horse Road. The origin point was a makeshift table that had a number of power strips piggy-backed together, acccording to Piringer.

The situation wasn't helped by a sub-standard electrical panel, which contained Edison fuses and sub-panels with Pushmatic circuit breakers, Piringer posted on Twitter Tuesday night.

MCFRS units were dispatched around 6 a.m., for the report of a fire in the basement at the home on Rocking Horse Road. Firefighters quickly extinguished the blaze.

Rescue personnel medically evaluated a man and a woman, who were occupying the home when the fire was reported. The man was taken to a nearby hospital to be treated for non-life-threatening injuries, according to MCFRS Assistant Chief David Pazos, in a blog post.

Both residents were displaced, according to Piringer.