A discarded cigarette sparked a house fire outside a Wheaton home early Monday, displacing five residents but sparing them injury thanks to working smoke alarms that woke them before flames could spread deeper into the house. Crews responded around 3:15 a.m. to the 12900 block of Valleywood Drive, near Wheaton High School in the Greenwood Knolls area, where the fire had ignited on the exterior of a split-level single-family home.
Firefighters determined the cigarette was the cause, according to DC News Now. All five residents were asleep when the fire started, but as reported by WUSA9, functioning smoke alarms alerted them in time to get out before the fire could climb to the second floor and attic.
Crews got the blaze under control quickly. The station's report puts the damage at roughly $120,000, with no civilian or firefighter injuries reported.
Exterior Ignitions Are a Recurring Montgomery County Problem
The NFPA reported that exterior balconies or porches were the most common area of origin for home structure fires started by smoking materials, with 3,148 incidents, or about 21 percent of the annual total, according to research from Joint Base San Antonio. In this case, the fire started outside before spreading inward.
Montgomery County has seen bigger versions of this same problem in recent years. In April, a two-alarm fire blamed on a “multitude of cigarette butts” left on a balcony caused roughly $2 million in damage and displaced several families at a Gaithersburg apartment complex, as reported by Patch. Back in March 2020, an improperly discarded cigarette caused $275,000 in damage and displaced 16 residents at the Grand Bel II Condos in Aspen Hill after flames spread from a second-floor bedroom, according to Montgomery Community Media, which noted that Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service deployed 85 firefighters to fight that two-alarm blaze.
Why the Smoke Alarms Made the Difference
NFPA data show that smoking-material home-structure fires caused an annual average of 590 deaths and $674 million in direct property damage during 2019–2023, according to the National Fire Protection Association.
Residential smoking-fire deaths declined over time.
Smoke alarms helped the five people get out of the Valleywood Drive home safely.
