Baltimore Firefighters Battle Wind-Driven Fire in Wood Collection Area
Baltimore Sun
(TNS)
All travel lanes of Interstate 83 have reopened after a massive wood fire that broke out Thursday evening in Baltimore’s Woodberry neighborhood snarled Friday morning traffic. The ramp from southbound I-83 to Coldspring Lane remains closed, according to the Maryland State Highway Administration.
The northbound lanes of I-83 reopened around 7:45 a.m. Friday. The southbound lanes reopened just after 8 a.m.
The Light Rail remains shut down between North Avenue to Falls Road. A shuttle bus service was activated to serve passengers.
State traffic officials warned that some adjacent roads had icy conditions as temperatures dipped below freezing.
Major delays are expected, and the State Highway Administration recommends using alternative routes. Traffic heading south on Falls Road toward the I-83 exit was backed up before 7 a.m.
The brush fire at Camp Small, the city’s wood waste collection area, was one of at least two fires that firefighters were tackling throughout the city on a subfreezing night with gusty winds.
“This fire quickly spread. It was wind-driven. It was a very challenging fire and at this point remains a very challenging fire,” Baltimore Fire Chief James Wallace said Thursday night, adding that fire crews were called just after 5 p.m. to Camp Small.
Wallace said there have been no reported injuries or evacuations. He said I-83 was shut down in both directions as emergency crews arrived to extinguish the fire Thursday night.
In a news release, Mayor Brandon Scott said an employee of Baltimore Recreation and Parks first observed a small fire on the property at Camp Small and called 911.
He said as of late Thursday there were 12 engine companies and more than 100 firefighters at the scene of the three-alarm blaze, including units from Harford County and Baltimore County.
The Baltimore City Department of Transportation said in a post on X that in addition to Cold Spring Lane, northbound and southbound I-83 from Northern Parkway to Druid Park Lake Drive will be closed until further notice. Cold Spring is closed between I-83 and the Woodberry Apartments.
A Baltimore Fire dispatcher said earlier that the blaze was coming from an approximately 300-by-100-foot pile of logs at the intersection of Cold Spring Lane and Brand Avenue. The dispatcher said the logs were outside a mulching facility.
Embers from the fire are being carried by the high winds, Wallace said, but a nearby apartment building was not affected. He said the brush fire is among the largest that he has seen in his career.
Thursday night’s weather forecast calls for strong winds in Baltimore, with gusts up to 26 mph, according to the National Weather Service. Friday was expected to again be blustery with wind gusts as high as 24 mph, dying down to about 8 mph at night.
Light rail service has been suspended between the Falls Road and North Avenue stations “due to fire department activity,” the MTA said in a service alert. Both eastbound and westbound service on LocalLink bus 28 will be rerouted, according to the MTA.
Wallace said firefighters are also trying to protect the light rail tracks from the heat of the blaze. He said the tracks had been “de-energized.”
Speaking later Thursday night, Wallace said heavy machinery had arrived at the site and that fire officials planned to cut a ring around the fire and attempt to keep it in its footprint.
“This fire is not under control but we’ve gained an upper hand on it,” Wallace said around 11 p.m.
The fire chief also said he expected the fire department to be on the scene late until the night and into the morning.
Late Thursday, Baltimore City Public Schools said two nearby schools, Baltimore Polytechnic Institute and Western High School, will be closed Friday.
Another fire was reported in a building on Lexington Street around 6 p.m. According to Baltimore City Fire officials, a fire in two 4-story units in the 600 block was contained despite heavy wind conditions. Ten residents were displaced by the blaze, fire officials said, and a firefighter was taken to a hospital with minor injuries.
Wallace said there was a third fire but he did not have further details about the location.
The Washington Monument lighting celebration in Mount Vernon did not include fireworks as part of the program due to multiple fires across the city Thursday night, Baltimore Comptroller Bill Henry said at the event.
This article will be updated.
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