A fire destroyed a house on Azalea Lane near the University Courtyard apartment complex Saturday night — the second major College Park house fire within the past two weeks.
Fire investigators are looking into the cause of the blaze, which started on the front porch before it spread to the rest of the one-story home. Two brothers lived in the home, but no one was there at the time of the fire, Prince George’s Country Fire Department spokesman Mark Brady said.
The blaze comes one week after another fire deemed as arson gutted a rental house on Princeton Avenue April 30. One university student died in that fire and another remains hospitalized in intensive care, but fire officials said there is no apparent connection between the two fires.
“There’s no indication at this point that these incidents are related,” Brady said.
The home is located near the Paint Branch Drive entrance to the campus, near a campus security checkpoint.
Firefighters received a 911 emergency call around 10:50 p.m. from a caller at the Chesapeake Building, who said flames from the fire reached over the trees.
“We could see a glow in the sky from afar,” said Ty Dickerson, assistant fire chief of the College Park Volunteer Fire Department, who was the first to arrive.
By the time firefighters arrived, flames engulfed the entire front of the house, Dickerson said. Firefighters extinguished the fire within 30 minutes, Brady said. Dickerson said there were no signs that anyone was in the vicinity when he arrived at the fire.
The house appeared to be vacant with little furniture, but neighbors told fire investigators two brothers who work in the Beltway Plaza Mall live in the home irregularly, Brady said. They rented the home, but fire officials could not contact them as of yesterday afternoon.
Azalea Lane has not technically existed since the creation of Paint Branch Drive, but homes that predate its construction still have Azalea Lane addresses, Brady said.
A long dirt driveway leads the way into the home, which is in a remote area surrounded by tall trees. The grass in the yard was overgrown and empty water bottles littered the yard. The only house nearby is a red brick house, where a university employee lives, Brady said. The blaze caused $70,000 in damage, with most of the cost to the structure of the home, Brady said.
