‘Never seen anything like it’: Neighbors recount deadly fire as community mourns woman killed

To one neighbor, it sounded like an implosion or two cars slamming into each other. Another described it as if someone were smashing a car window ― but much more intense.

Jeff Smith, 43, who lives across the street, didn’t hear anything. He had earphones in, taking a conference call around lunchtime Thursday. He looked outside from his home office and saw the flames shooting out of his neighbor’s second-story window.

The fire rapidly engulfed the rowhome in the middle of the 2200 block of Guilford Avenue in North Baltimore’s Barclay neighborhood.

Smith said his neighbor came out the front door, clearly in shock. He was yelling about his wife — had she gotten out?

“He kept thinking she got out the back,” Smith said.

Dozens of firefighters, police officers and other emergency personnel swarmed the street within minutes, neighbors said. Smoke blanketed the block.

People were screaming, said Tim “Moth” Sharma, 46.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Sharma said. “The next thing I remember was people running out of their homes carrying children and pets.”

When no one answered the door at a home adjacent to the blaze, firefighters broke down the door, carried out a dog and handed it to Smith, who said he watched over the pet until the owner arrived 30 minutes later, distraught.

As homes were evacuated, neighbors said, the crowd of emergency personnel, neighbors and onlookers swelled so much that officials shut down traffic through the block.

Firefighters doused hot spots while onlookers waited for any sign of the missing woman.

This stretch of Guilford Avenue is dotted with tall, leafy sycamore trees, decades old. Property records show a mix of newcomers alongside older homeowners whose roots also go back decades.

The neighbors said they know almost everyone on the block by face, if not by name.

Some keep tabs via a group chat, watch each other’s pets and meet up for an occasional happy hour, Sharma said. On Thursday, he said, everyone was checking in with everyone.

According to property records, the rowhome where the blaze started had been owned by the same family since 1958.

“Some of our neighbors had commented that the woman that had lived there, she was born in that house,” said Ross Wallgren, 31, who lives down the street. “Her family had owned and had lived in that house when she was born.”

Hours went by.

Firefighters extinguished the blaze, and the home’s formstone facade was still standing. But the fire destroyed the interior, complicating any search, officials said. One wrong move could have triggered a collapse.

Outside the home lurked another danger. A Banner reporter noted a sulfury scent like that of natural gas. That afternoon, crews cut three holes into the street to shut off gas lines.

By 2 a.m., the firefighters had paused their search. They resumed six hours later. Around 9:30 a.m. Friday, near the back of the destroyed home, they found the woman’s body.

That day, workers used a backhoe to demolish much of the remaining structure. Broken bricks, glass shards, charred wood and all the other items accumulated during a lifetime were piled on the street, then carted away.

Several homes on both sides have been evacuated and boarded up. The Red Cross of the National Capital & Greater Chesapeake Region said it’s assisting six households impacted by the fire. The site is little more than pit, fenced off from the sidewalk with a black tarp across it, seemingly to deter sightseers.

On Saturday, a man in a straw hat pulled back the tarp and peered inside. Cars slowed and stopped. A passerby took a photo.

Someone put a stuffed rabbit and a glass jar with flowers on the marble steps next door. A chunk of building material fell from the home next door into the pit with a loud thud.

“I wonder if they’ll come back and take all that down,” a woman walking by said. “They can’t leave it like that ... it’s still falling down.”

Wallgren stepped out of his rowhome to walk to the gym Saturday morning. It was an act of normalcy for someone who said he was in shock, still trying to process what had happened.

“This is a great block to live on. Now a quarter of it’s gone,” Wallgren said.

Smith said he’s setting up a fundraiser for the people impacted.

Sharma said fire department employees were going from house to house Saturday, making sure everyone had working fire alarms.

“I’m scared for how quickly these houses can go up [in flames] and how connected they are,” he said. “I’m really just so sad for the woman who lost her life and the family that’s affected.”

Officials said Friday they were investigating the cause of the fire. As of Saturday afternoon, they had not publicly identified the woman.

Banner reporter Darreonna Davis contributed to this article.