Two people, two dogs killed in Dundalk house fire
BALTIMORE -- Dundalk residents are in shock after two people died in a house fire Tuesday.
The fire department said the blaze started a little before 6:30 a.m.
Investigators said 66-year-old Beth Susan Gibson died in the fire. The second victim hasn't been identified.
Firefighters found a person on the stairway and another in an upstairs bedroom. Both dead in the house, according to officials.
Four people lived at the home.
"I just heard fire truck after fire truck after fire truck," Adam Feierabend, a neighborhood resident who lives on the block, said. "I knew something bad was happening."
The home is located on Kavanagh Road near Oxley Road. People who live nearby described the ferocity and breadth of the fire.
"It was covering my house, so the flames [were] covering my house," Tia Carter said. "I had to get my kids out. That was my main focus, my children."
Rachelle Alexander, a public information officer for Baltimore County's fire department, said a third person jumped from a window. That person was taken to Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center with non-life threatening injuries, Alexander said.
Another person who lived in the home left for work before the fire.
A woman who was in the area at the time of the fire described the moment she saw the survivor jump from the window.
"I looked up—he literally jumped down, hit the awning, rolled down. He literally hit the ground," she told WJZ. "He jumped up. He was banging so hard. Whoever was in the house, he was really trying to get them out of there."
For a moment, firefighters thought a fourth person was still inside, but that person was later found safe.
Investigators are now searching for the cause of this fatal fire, as loved ones deal with the shock.
"I heard somebody walking away. I guess she was related to them," Adam Feierabend said. "I'm sure this whole neighborhood is going to be in tears."
Agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are participating in the fire investigation, too, according to authorities.
The agency sent certified fire investigators, task force officers, and a dog trained to detect accelerants to the fire site, federal officials said.
The cause of the fire remains unclear.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
