A fire damaged multiple rowhomes in Baltimore's McElderry Park early Saturday, sending firefighters scrambling to knock down flames along the dense East Baltimore block before they could spread further down the row.
Crews responded to the fire and worked to bring it under control, according to WBFF. Details on injuries, displaced residents, or a specific cause have not been released.
A Neighborhood Built for Fire to Spread
McElderry Park is an East Baltimore neighborhood bounded by East Monument Street, North Linwood Avenue, East Fayette Street, and Patterson Park Avenue, according to Live Baltimore. The rowhouses share common party walls. Baltimore Magazine traces the growth of contiguous brick rowhouses in Baltimore.
Saturday's fire is not an isolated event for this stretch of East Baltimore. Emergency crews also responded to a fire on Luzerne Avenue in McElderry Park, as well as a June 5 roof fire at an East Monument Street building in the same neighborhood, according to WBFF and Citizen.
Vacant Rowhomes and a Costly Citywide Problem
Vacant and abandoned rowhomes are a persistent hazard in neighborhoods like McElderry Park, and the scale of the problem may be undercounted. An independent survey by community group Housing Our Neighbors in McElderry Park and Middle East found 33% more vacant properties than were officially recorded on Baltimore City's vacant building notice list, per The Abell Foundation.
Citywide, official vacant building notices declined 21% from more than 16,000 in 2020 to roughly 12,600 by 2025, but abandoned residential properties still generate over $210 million in direct annual public costs, including emergency and fire calls, Hoodline previously reported, citing Urban Institute and HousingWire data. Maryland has committed $900 million in state support alongside a $3 billion plan to address Baltimore's vacant housing crisis by 2038, Hoodline reported in coverage of a separate East Baltimore incident.
How Fire Crews Approach Unstable Rowhouses
A 2022 fire in an abandoned rowhouse killed three firefighters, according to FireRescue1.
The Baltimore City Fire Department, founded in 1858, operates out of 38 fire stations across six battalions serving the city, per Wikipedia.
