A pot of food left unattended on a stove was blamed for a two-alarm fire late last night that destroyed the upper floors of a Baltimore apartment building in the first block of E. Preston St. and sent thick smoke southeastward, a fire investigator said.
The occupant of the apartment where the fire started and another woman were treated at Mercy Medical Center for smoke inhalation. More than a dozen other occupants of the building escaped without injury.
The fire caused $200,000 damage to the building and $125,000 to its contents, said Battalion Chief Hector Torres, a Fire Department spokesman.
Capt. Stephan Fugate, a fire investigator, said the fire began in the first-floor kitchen of Paula Johnson, 28, of 20 E. Preston St., and raced up a common open area to the second and third floors and a loft apartment. The first alarm was reported at 10:55 p.m. and the second at 11:10 p.m.
The fire was brought under control at 12:47 a.m.