A 38-year-old woman and her 7-year-old son died early yesterday in a fire that destroyed a Northeast Baltimore rowhouse.
City firefighters found the bodies of Patricia Thompson and her son, Michael Thompson, in the basement of the house in the 2600 block of Kirk Ave. at 6:33 a.m.
Battalion Chief Hector L. Torres, a Baltimore Fire Department spokesman, said investigators suspect a space heater ignited a pile of clothes.
The basement, Chief Torres said, apparently was being used as a sleeping quarters. Two other adults escaped unharmed, he said.
Firefighters also found 65-year-old Dallas Thompson unconscious on the first floor. Chief Torres said Mr. Thompson was taken to the Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center Burn Center, where he was in critical condition with second- and third-degree burns over 65 percent of his body.
The spokesman said the basement was engulfed in flames when the first units arrived at 5:54 a.m., and smoke filled the two-story brick rowhouse.
Fire investigators found a smoke detector on the second floor, but the battery had been disconnected, he said.
"Since it seems that the basement was the primary sleeping area, there should have been a smoke detector in that area as well," Chief Torres said.