WALDORF, Md. (WUSA9) -- A fire that ripped through a Waldorf home early Wednesday morning killed a woman and a young boy.
According to Diane Richardson, spokeswoman for the Charles County Sheriff's Department, first responders were alerted to a house fire in the 15100 block of Poplar Hill Road in Waldorf around 12:30 a.m. Once on scene, firefighters found a home fully engulfed in flames.
Firefighters got one 911 call from a woman inside the home. They say she was frantically screaming that the house was on fire and people were trapped - then the phone call disconnected. “The way we heard her screaming on the phone we knew it was an emergency," recalled Bill Smith with Charles County Fire. That woman and 3 others awoke to the smoke alarm and made it out alive. Only to sit and watch helplessly as the intense flames destroyed their home and their family: a 6 year old boy and his grandmother were lost.
“The entire home was engulfed in flames," Smith added.
55 Firefighters from Charles and Prince George's Counties battled the blaze but according to the Fire Marshall arrived 13 minutes after that 911 call. Smith said it does take time to wind through the long country roads of Charles County but the construction of the single story modular home didn’t help either.
“When they build these houses nowadays, they are very lightweight….and the materials are very combustible." According to the Fire Marshall the grandmother was found in the front of the house, while the boy was found in a back room. The cause of the fire is still under investigation.
