Willows Road Fire Ruled Arson

Fire Marshal Rules Fire in Lexington Park Apartment
Construction Site as Arson
Four weeks to the day following Hunters Brooke Arson....more Revenge of the Rednecks in a copy-cat blaze?
---- 6 fire companies fight blaze
---- Attempt was made Dec. 20th to torch same building but fire burned out...still no watchman was on duty
--- Water supply to fight fire insufficient, fire company officials request urgent meeting with St. Mary's authorities to bring water lines to site during construction phase

Bay District firefighters work a hose crew in the center of a building which burned completely to the ground at about 3:00 am today. 
ST. MARY'S TODAY photo

By Kenneth C. Rossignol
ST. MARY'S TODAY
LEXINGTON PARK (Jan. 3, 2005) ---The Maryland State Fire Marshal's Office has ruled that in what may be a dramatic case of copy cat arson of a construction site, fire which roared through the first building under roof of a large apartment complex near the main gate of the Patuxent River Naval Air Station in St. Mary's County, totally destroying the structure was a case of arson.
Deputy Chief Fire Marshal W. Faron Taylor told ST. MARY'S TODAY that as of 2 pm today, investigators on the scene say that they found an accelerant in the core of the building.  
Bay District Volunteer Fire Chief Wayne Johnson and the crew of the Naval Air Station engine 132 were the first firefighters on the scene just after 3:00 a.m. 
"I saw flames shooting up about 30 feet in the air," Chief Johnson told ST. MARY'S TODAY. "The NAS crew immediately went to the first hydrant so our crew could pick up their line.  Fire blew across from the building and started a large brush fire and we called out a second alarm with six other companies".
A construction worker had called in a report to the St. Mary's Sheriff's Department on Dec. 20th, a reported confirmed to ST. MARY'S TODAY by Deputy Chief W. Faron Taylor, that someone had attempted to set fire to the same building and yet the construction company apparently failed to have posted guards at the site.
The fire had burned itself out without doing any major damage or being noticed by anyone until crews arrived to work.
Other apartment projects in the area employ off duty deputies and troopers to work at the sites and in light of the recent arson destruction of the Hunter's Brooke in Charles County, along with an arson attempt at this Lexington Park site just within the past week, the lack of guards shows that the management must have all taken the holidays off to vacation somewhere. In the past, firms have had security on premises to keep all building materials from being looted and stolen at night after workers leave the site.
The firm building the apartment complex on Willows Road is the H. H. Hunt Company of North Carolina.
The construction site is a major apartment complex, perhaps the largest one built in St. Mary's County in recent years, only one mile from the Patuxent River Naval Air Station. 
Maryland State Deputy Fire Marshal Don Brennemann was on the scene by 4:30 am.  

Firefighters extinguished this building which was fully involved and destroyed the garden apartment style structure which was under roof on Willows Road.
ST. MARY'S TODAY photo

Heroes at Work --- From a 2-story structure to ashes in minutes. Firefighters from Solomon's, Ridge, Valley Lee, Bay District, NAS Pax River, Leonardtown and Hollywood fought this fire which was fully involved when they arrived.  ST. MARY'S TODAY photo
Building completely destroyed --- More photos: firefighters in center of incinerated apartment project clubhouse


Hunters Brooke Arson in Full Blaze --- Fire on Willows Road brings fresh memories of Maryland's largest arson fire at Hunters Brooke near Indian Head just 4 weeks ago today.   Many of the same firefighters who fought that fire were out early today on the one in Lexington Park. 
EXCLUSIVE NEWS PHOTO ----
ST. MARY'S TODAY photo by Terrance Greenhow