A Montgomery County family was displaced after their Germantown apartment caught on fire Wednesday night. It was the second time in less than six weeks that a fire had left their home uninhabitable.
The first time was at a Gaithersburg apartment complex last month.
At about 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, firefighters responded to 19510 Crystal Rock Drive for a report of a fire on the first floor of a two-story apartment building, according to a Twitter post from Montgomery County Fire and Rescue spokesman Pete Piringer. The fire was put out and no injuries were reported, but two adults and two children were displaced.
The cause of the fire was determined to be accidental, according to Piringer, and started when clothing and diapers were too close to a water heater.
The damage was estimated to be about $22,000.
The family of four had recently relocated to the Germantown apartment after an accidental fire at their apartment home in Gaithersburg. The clothing and diapers that caught fire Wednesday had been donated to the family following the first fire, according to Piringer.
The February blaze at a four-story apartment on Duvall Lane displaced more than 50 people.
An electrical malfunction between the second and third floors likely caused the fire, Piringer wrote on Twitter at the time. That fire caused about $1.75 million in damage and affected 14 units.