A garage fire tore through a two-story home on the 2000 block of Bart Ct in Brock Hall Sunday evening, leaving two residents displaced and the structure's roof badly damaged. Prince George's County Fire/EMS crews arrived to find flames pouring from the garage before knocking the blaze down. No injuries were reported.
Emergency dispatchers logged the initial report at 5:28 p.m. on September 27, prompting an immediate response from fire units, according to DMV Noticias. Crews found visible flames coming from the garage of the single-family home when they arrived on scene. Prince George's County Fire/EMS Department told DC News Now that reports of the fire came in shortly before 5:30 p.m., with crews dispatched to the 2000 block of Bart Ct in Brock Hall.
Firefighters located the flames coming from the garage of the two-story home and worked to extinguish them, per the same account. The fire caused extensive damage to the garage's roof, though no injuries were reported among residents or responders. The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
The Brock Hall Neighborhood
Brock Hall is a census-designated community just north of the county seat in Upper Marlboro, with an estimated 2026 population of 14,288 and a median household income exceeding $200,000, according to World Population Review. The home involved in the fire was a two-story single-family residence.
That proximity matters because garage fires tend to burn undetected for longer than fires elsewhere in a home. Model residential building standards generally do not require smoke detectors inside private garages, according to the U.S. Fire Administration. Garage fires can go undetected longer and cause greater damage, and safety experts recommend heat alarms in garages as an alternative.
Why Garage Fires Spread So Fast
Federal fire safety research shows that fires originating in residential garages tend to be larger and spread faster than fires starting elsewhere in a home, with electrical malfunctions causing 16 percent of garage blazes and open flames causing 11 percent, according to the U.S. Fire Administration. Electrical arcing is identified as the single most common heat source in these fires. Nationally, roughly 6,600 residential garage fires are reported each year, resulting in about 30 deaths, 400 injuries, and $457 million in property damage, the agency's data shows, with garage fires making up about 2 percent of all U.S. residential structure fires.
The Prince George's County Fire/EMS Department operates as one of the largest combination career and volunteer fire departments in the country, running 45 fire stations across seven operational battalions to cover a jurisdiction spanning roughly 580 square miles, according to the Prince George's County Government. The department handles more than 183,000 emergency incidents annually — averaging roughly 802 calls a day.
Relief for Displaced Residents
The American Red Cross may be a source of help for residents displaced by a fire. It remains unclear whether the two displaced Bart Ct residents have received assistance.
Fire investigators have not yet determined the cause of the Bart Ct fire.
