A vehicle fire loaded with burning batteries tore through a garage and into a Gaithersburg home before dawn Wednesday, displacing six adults and two children and sending one person to be checked for burns. Crews with Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service responded around 5:20 a.m. to the 100 block of Summit Hall Road, near Brighton Drive, where they found a vehicle engulfed in flames with fire already spreading to the garage and house.
Everyone got out of the house safely, and firefighters brought the fire under control, according to dcnewsnow.com. Fire and rescue spokesperson Pete Piringer said several large batteries inside the vehicle were burning as well, a detail that complicated the response. WJLA also reported the home is a two-story, single-family house.
One Adult Evaluated, Declines Hospital Transport
Medics evaluated one adult for minor burns at the scene, per Piringer, and that person declined transport to a hospital, the same outlet reported. In total, six adults and two children were displaced by the blaze, and the cause remains under investigation, per the same account.
The Summit Hall Road fire is the latest in a string of vehicle- and battery-related fires that Montgomery County crews have handled in recent weeks. Two weeks and two days earlier, on Oct. 19, MCFRS crews responded to a garage fire involving lithium batteries at a single-family home in White Oak, a blaze that was out by 8:31 p.m. with hazmat personnel assisting and no injuries reported, according to Bethesda Magazine.
Pattern of Vehicle Fires Near Homes in Gaithersburg
Gaithersburg itself has seen more than one vehicle fire threaten a home this year. On Aug. 23, MCFRS responded to a vehicle fire involving a Jeep in the carport of a home on the 11300 block of Rambling Road, though firefighters extinguished that blaze with little or no extension into the house, according to mocoshow.com.
A separate Gaithersburg house fire on Oct. 2 displaced a family of eight and their dog, with seven adults, one child and the dog escaping unharmed. Piringer said at the time that a vehicle power cord plugged into an outlet had caused that fire, which caused roughly $100,000 in damages, dcnewsnow.com reported. A weekend report from mymcmedia.org also described multiple vehicle-related incidents across the county, including fires and a crash that injured two people, though that report does not establish a longer-term trend on its own.
As of Wednesday morning, investigators had not yet determined what sparked the Summit Hall Road fire or what started the batteries burning inside the vehicle. MCFRS has not released further details on the family's displacement or when residents might be able to return home.
