Editor’s note: This story was updated at 4:45 p.m. Oct. 31, 2022, with the latest information.
Two people were injured and 120 people, including 100 adults and 20 children, were displaced after a fire broke out Monday morning on the top floor of a four-story apartment building in Rockville, according to authorities.
The building in the 800 block of College Parkway near Nelson Street was evacuated due to heavy fire conditions, MCFRS chief spokesperson Pete Piringer wrote on Twitter. Two adjacent buildings were also damaged by the fire.
Two residents suffered minor injuries in the fire and firefighters helped escort others out of the building, Fire Chief Scott Goldstein said in a media briefing. Dozens of people are expected to be displaced by the fire.
The cause of the fire appeared to be accidental and related to the building’s heating and air conditioning system, Piringer wrote on Twitter late Monday afternoon. Damage was estimated at $1.5 million.
Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service crews responded to a report of a fire at about 9 a.m. While the initial report said the fire had affected a three-story building, crews arrived to find a four-story apartment building with fire on the top floor, Goldstein said.
The fire on the top floor extended all the way into the attic, Goldstein said, and affected other buildings nearby.
The heavy flames led to a second alarm being requested, Piringer tweeted on his social media around 9.30 a.m. By 10 a.m., a third alarm was prompted, bringing the number of firefighters who responded to the scene to around 100, according to Goldstein.
The roof was burned away from the original building where the fire broke out and the roofs of two nearby buildings burned as well, according to Goldstein.
Two residents suffered minor injuries, but no firefighter injuries were reported, Goldstein said.
College Parkway from Princeton Place to Nelson Street remain closed and drivers have been asked to find alternate routes, according to county police.
Goldstein said it was too early to provide information on the source of the fire.
Montgomery County Council President Gabe Albornoz thanked first responders and the county’s Fire and Rescue Services for their swift action in dealing with the fire, during a media briefing on Monday afternoon.
“We are thinking of all of those residents who are experiencing the losses associated with this fire and wishing anyone who suffered any injuries a full recovery,” Albornoz said.
Albornoz said that in response to the incident, the Department of Health and Human Services’s mass care team had been dispatched to assist residents who had been displaced from their apartments.