Fire Displaces Four from Seven Locks Road Home

More than 50 firefighters responded to a house fire that condemned one house on Seven Locks Road late Thursday afternoon.

Just before 3 p.m., Montgomery County firefighters were dispatched to a reported house fire at a one-story, single-family dwelling near the intersection of Seven Locks Road and MacArthur Boulevard. It took between 20 and 25 minutes of intense fighting to kill the fire, according to Mike McCarthy, duty chief for Montgomery County Fire Rescue.

"The fire was so intense they had to evacuate and go into defensive mode," McCarthy said of the effort.

Due to high heat and an unsound structure, crews evacuated the house and continued their efforts from outside the structure, McCarthy added.

"The house could have fallen on top of them," he said. 

No injuries were reported, but two firefighters were evaluated on scene and released without being transported to a hospital. 

McCarthy reported that there is extensive damage to the basement and back of the house, which is considered “unoccupiable.” The fire has displaced four adults and the Red Cross is assisting them, according to the Montgomery County Fire Rescue media line.

Melissa Bell of 6608 Seven Locks Road heard the sirens from her house and went outside with her daughter, Kyra McKinna, to investigate. 

"We heard a lot of sirens coming from a couple different directions," Bell said.

After going to check it out, the two realized that fire responders were coming from many other areas. Vehicles and apparatuses from Rockville, Fairfax and Bethesda-Chevy Chase responded to the fire, among others. 

The fire response effort blocked off the intersection of Seven Locks Road and MacArthur Boulevard, as well as the intersection with Seven Locks and Tomlinson Road.

As of 6 p.m., the entrance of Seven Locks at MacArthur was still closed. Tomlinson was open.

Capt. Steve Alderson of Truck 711 has been fighting fires professionally for 22 years and said this was one of the most extreme fires he has seen, especially for the area. Alderson attributed the difficulty of the rescue effort to difficult access caused by an addition to an original house. According to Alderson, the structure began to fail quickly. Alderson considered the dwelling condemned.

The fire has been deemed accidental, according to McCarthy, who said that the homeowner had been working in the lower level and accidentally knocked a metal cabinet into a fuse box. A fire broke out immediately.