SEVERN, Md. (ABC7) – Kathy Miller was sleeping quietly in her Severn home when an explosion shook her entire house.
Within seconds, a neighboring home on Stone Hearth Way was going up in flames.
“It bolted me awake,” she said. “It was so loud. And immediately, the flames were shooting from the back of the house.”
The building, located in a cozy neighborhood not far from Fort Meade, is one of a number of group homes operated by the Arundel Lodge.
“I was just devastated,” said Georgette Queen, who lives right around the corner. “I mean the fire was just flaming and bursting.”
It was 10:45 p.m. on what had been a quiet Saturday night.
Within moments, startled and frightened neighbors began calling for help for a fire that ultimately killed three people.
“I heard a loud blast like a bomb sound,” said Joyce Wilson-Phillips, who lives across the street. “Then when I came to the front, I saw blazing in the back.”
Several neighbors say they were thinking the same thing, along with questions about if any any people who may have been inside were OK.
With flames engulfing the single-family home, it did not look good.
“Very sad,” Queen said. “I just felt like, ‘Oh my God,’ I just prayed that the people would make it out there safely.”
Images from Queen’s cell phone shows the house engulfed in flames, almost a fireball.
Authorities said four people managed to escape the blaze.
But two male residents and a female Arundel Lodge employee did not.
“It was so fast. It was an extremely strong explosion,” Miller said.
She recounted how a firefighter, running up to the scene, tried to enter the home without safety gear.
But the flames were too much.
She says he wasn’t the only one.
“People were wanting to get in, but were very cautious knowing how hot it already was,” she said. “And there could have been other explosions with the oxygen tanks in there.
Arriving first responders found themselves confronted by heavy fire in the back of the house.
SEVERN FATAL FIRE: investigators are looking for a cause for Saturday night fire that left three people dead. #fire #investigation #severn pic.twitter.com/9AbL2yPTeh
– Richard Reeve (@abc7Richard) April 22, 2018
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While battling the blaze, they discovered a man who had died in the flames.
“As the firefighters continued their searches, unfortunately, they located two more adult victims, a male and a female who were also deceased on the scene,” said Capt. Russ Davies, a spokesperson for the Anne Arundel Fire Department.
Residents say the now gutted group home had been part of the neighborhood since 1997.
Although the Arundel Lodge is known for caring for the chemically addicted, deaf and seniors, neighbors said most of those living at Stone Hearth Way location were older residents.
“It was sad, it was really sad,” Wilson-Phillips said. “Last night, to see that, people can’t get out. Neighbors trying to help, it was awful.”
Authorities said it took about 45 firefighters an hour to put the blaze out.
By Sunday morning, ATF investigators had arrived from Baltimore to help look for a cause.
“They started digging through the debris with the first daylight this morning,” Davies said. “So right now the cause of the fire is undetermined.”
Authorities have not released the identity of those who were killed, pending an autopsy by the medical examiner’s office.
Fire officials said the building had working smoke detectors.
Cynthia Williams, the president of the local home association, is troubled by the possibility that the oxygen tanks were a factor.
“It’s early in the investigation, we don’t know what the cause was, but that is possible,” she said, quietly. “There were some elderly patients who were on oxygen.”
Arundel Lodge employees who returned to the home Sunday hugged each other for support.
They quietly gathered a few items after the building was cleared by investigators.
ABC7 News was unable to reach anyone with Arundel Lodge management for comment.
Now, neighbors say they are praying for the residents, the employees and their families.
“A terrible tragedy,” Williams said. “Everyone in the neighborhood is shaken, and we feel so terrible that lives were lost.”
