A four-alarm fire swept through the Woodside Apartments in Glen Burnie yesterday morning, causing $1 million in property damage but injuring no one, fire officials said.
Lt. Robert Kornmann, a spokesman for the Anne Arundel County fire department, said 16 apartments were damaged, a dozen so heavily that their occupants were left homeless.
The Red Cross placed six families in a hotel for the night, Annette Mooney, a spokeswoman, said. The other families evacuated made arrangements to stay with families or relatives, Ms. Mooney said.
The lieutenant said he did not know how many people lived in the 12 burned-out apartments in the 7800 block of Parke West Drive.
The management office at the apartment complex refused to answer questions about the fire.
Contractors soldering a pipe in the wall of a basement apartment accidentally started the fire shortly after 10:30 a.m., said Lieutenant Kornmann.
The workmen tried to fight the blaze with fire extinguishers, but the flames remained behind the wall, then went up to an attic and engulfed the third floor, authorities said.
About that time, Curtis Walker got a call from his fiancee.
"She told me to come home," said Mr. Walker, who rushed home from his job at a pipe company in Jessup. "The complex was on fire. Everybody had to get out."
When firefighters arrived, they found heavy smoke billowing from the building. Flames shot through the roof of the third floor, jumped a fire wall and set another roof on fire, fire officials said. Both roofs were destroyed.
Lieutenant Kornmann said it took 45 firefighters a little over an hour to bring the blaze under control.
Frank L. Miller, executive director of the Central Maryland chapter of the American Red Cross, was driving an organization van south on Interstate 97 when he saw smoke from the fire. He drove to Hallmark Drive and called for a Red Cross disaster team.
Mr. Walker, who lived on the second floor, salvaged a few items from his apartment, mostly shirts and sweaters. He said he plans to come back today with a truck to get the rest of his belongings.
Yesterday afternoon, charred wood, books, furniture, clothing and a teddy bear lay in a pile around the side of Building 642. The acrid smellof smoke lingered in the air.
Denise Hawkins, a hairstylist in Pasadena, rushed home from her job after a friend called her and told her the building was on fire. She said she initially thought it was just a small kitchen fire. She did not expect to see firefighters toss kitchen items from her second-floor apartment window, she said.
"My sister keeps saying just save what you can," she said outside the building yesterday afternoon. "But it's gone. Now I got to start all over again."
A cat trapped in one of the apartments was burned and taken by animal control workers to the county animal shelter for treatment, Lieutenant Kornmann said.
Members of a Red Cross disaster team will return to the complex today to help anyone in need.