Power surge in Bolton Hill fries appliances, causes devastating house fire

Sara Serino noticed something strange was happening to her family’s home in Bolton Hill on the morning of Aug. 25. Just before 7 a.m., she heard a loud pop, and half of the house lost power.

Within a few hours, a fire broke out in the family’s rowhome, destroying their young children’s bedrooms and a bathroom on the third floor. They can’t move back in for a year, Serino’s husband, Jamie Morganstern, said.

About 15 homes in the neighborhood were affected by what neighbors believe was a block-wide power surge from Baltimore Gas and Electric Co.’s power lines, said Lee Tawney, president of the Bolton Hill Community Association. Residents said appliances large and small, including a toaster, were fried, and one person’s computer caught fire.

The surge also affected Brown Memorial Park Avenue Presbyterian Church and the Bolton Hill Nursery on West Lanvale Street.

No children were in the nursery school at the time, Christie Barnes, executive director of Bolton Hill Nursery, said. But the school did lose an industrial-sized washing machine, laptops and more from the incident.

“This could have been a much, much more devastating situation,” Morganstern said.

BGE representatives told residents at a community meeting Tuesday that the utility had continued their investigations within hours of the incident and believes the situation was likely caused by a missing — possibly tampered with — 60-foot-long neutral wire, which completes an electrical circuit. The company has since taken several steps to address the issue and safety concerns, the representatives said.

When the power wasn’t working properly that morning, Serino said, she checked the electrical panel and everything appeared normal.

But by then, adding to the mystery, their neighbor’s home was hazy and smelled of smoke.

Morganstern and Serino took their children out to breakfast. By the time they got back, their home also seemed to be filling with smoke.

Technicians from BGE were already in their back alley, Morganstern said. He told one of the workers what his family was experiencing and inquired about what was happening.

The worker told him there was something wrong with the neutral line connected to their house.

They left again to get away from the smell of smoke. But while out, at around 10:30 a.m., their neighbors started to call.

Their house was on fire.

Morganstern relayed his story to neighbors and representatives for BGE at a Bolton Hill community meeting on Tuesday.

“Our kids’ bedrooms, their toys and clothes, were all destroyed,” Morganstern said at the meeting. “There’s a hole in our roof. All of our things are covered in smoke and water damage. We’re told we won’t be able to return home for at least a year while our house is gutted and renovated.”

Malcom Lewis, senior engineering manager at BGE, said at that same meeting there were “some clues and some anomalies that were a bit strange to us.”

“What the service operators found initially was a missing neutral wire,” Lewis said. “The wire needed to balance the voltage that we’re supplying to our customers was missing. Not down, not burned with any traces or remnants on the ground, but actually missing.”

Power quality monitors were promptly installed to measure the supply and electrical loads, and the company is conducting a reliability investigation.

The BGE representatives talked privately to affected homeowners, but that has not fully restored trust, community members said.

“Our family and our neighbors are angry and scared,” Morganstern said Tuesday. “No one knows if their house might ignite next.”