WASHINGTON 鈥� Investigators continue to work to determine what caused a deadly fire in Beltsville, Maryland, early Saturday but the fire continues what鈥檚 been a deadly trend in Prince George鈥檚 County that鈥檚 vexing leaders in the fire department.
The mother of three who died Saturday is now the ninth fire-related death in the county this year, nearly doubling last year鈥檚 total already.
In 2017 five people lost their lives in a fire.
鈥淭here鈥檚 no rhyme or reason,鈥� said Prince George鈥檚 County Fire Department spokesman Mark Brady.
Brady said one issue could be a lack of working smoke alarms.
鈥淭he majority of the incidents we鈥檝e seen so far with fatalities, there鈥檚 been no working smoke alarm or the smoke alarm has been in a location in the house where it did the occupants no good,鈥� Brady said.
Brady noted the county has made an effort in recent years to make those sorts of scenarios less likely to happen in the hopes that it would save more lives in the event of a fire.
鈥淲别鈥檝别 changed the law recently in Prince George鈥檚 County where you must have a working smoke alarm on every level of your home, and we鈥檙e also requiring that those smoke alarms, if they鈥檙e battery operated, to be the 10-year model.鈥�
Preliminarily, fire investigators believe the fatal blaze in Beltsville on early Saturday started in the area of a back deck or patio before moving into the home and eventually engulfing the decades-old structure.
It鈥檚 unclear if there was a working smoke alarm inside the home.
In at least one case this year, firefighters could hear a smoke alarm going off when they got inside a home in Chillum where an elderly woman was found dead.
But that鈥檚 not been the case in several other incidents.
鈥淚t鈥檚 hard to say if we鈥檇 have been able to save any of these other fatalities up to this point,鈥� Brady said. 鈥淏ut again, working smoke alarms seems to be the common denominator in most of these incidents.鈥�
