Three Killed in Maryland House Fire

Three people were killed in a Brooklyn Park house fire Tuesday morning, including a neighbor who ran into the burning structure to try to save the people inside.

When Anne Arundel County firefighters arrived at the home on West Hilltop Road just before 2:40 a.m. they encountered heavy smoke and flames. They also received a report that people were trapped inside the two-story, single-family structure, said county fire department spokesman Capt. Russ Davies.

The fire quickly went to a second alarm.

It took 55 firefighters from the county, Baltimore city and BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport about an hour to control the blaze.

Firefighters ultimately removed a 45-year-old man, a 17-year-old boy and a woman, whose age wasn't available, from the home, Davies said. All three were transported to local hospitals, where they died from their injuries.

Fire officials are not yet releasing the identities of the deceased or their relationships to each other.

But Patty Rickman said her brother, Christopher Rickman, 45, was one of the victims. She said her brother ran into the home after he heard an explosion and saw the flames.

"My mother tried to stop him, but he kept running," Patty Rickman said. "He died a hero."

This year nine people have died in house fires in Anne Arundel County, up from two in 2014.

The house is owned by United Brethren in Christ Church, according to state property tax records. Church officials declined to comment.

Investigators were still on the scene late Tuesday morning as they attempted to determine the cause and origin of the fire. The home was damaged "significantly, if not destroyed," Davies said.

Ashley Riley, who lives a few doors down from the home, said through teary eyes that she saw the fire.

"The whole back area, it was nothing but flames," she said.

Another neighbor, who didn't wish to be identified, said she saw emergency personnel doing CPR on the victims outside of the home.

The latest blaze occurred about three weeks after a four-alarm fire tore through an Annapolis area mansion and killed homeowners Don and Sandra Pyle, and four grandchildren. The Jan. 19 fire on Childs Point Road was caused by a faulty electrical outlet which ignited a Christmas tree, fire officials said.

Deadly fires also have hit Brooklyn Park in the past.

Ten people were killed in a fire in the Arundel Park area of Brooklyn Park in January of 1956. In 2004, four people were killed in a fire on Cherry Lane in north Glen Burnie, near the Brooklyn Park line.

The Annapolis Fire Marshal's Office is holding a fire safety seminar at noon Wednesday in City Council chambers. Participants will take an "interactive journey" in home fire safety, city officials said, and learn how to identify fire risks and how to correct them.

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