Boy Dies In Fire At Millers Island Home

Millers Island, Md. (July 7, 2008, 4:30 p.m.) — Investigators continue to probe the cause of this morning's fire on Millers Island that claimed the life of a 11-year-old boy.

Late this afternoon, Baltimore County police identified the victim as Jacob Grey, who lived at the waterfront home in the 8900 block of Hinton Avenue where the fire occurred.

Fire crews were dispatched to a dwelling fire at 9:42 a.m. The first engine on the scene, from Edgemere Station #9, found the 2 1/2-story home fully involved with fire. Crews began attacking the fire and went inside to search for victims. Two adults who had escaped the burning house  -- one of them the boy's grandfather -- told fire officers that a child may have been trapped inside.

 But the fire was so intense, and the structural integrity of the house so compromised, that commanders ordered fire crews to evacuate the house and fight the fire from the outside. The roof had collapsed, and several propane tanks had exploded. Within about 10 minutes, crews suppressed the fire sufficiently to allow them to resume the search. 

Firefighters located the victim, covered with debris, in an office on the second floor at about 11:40 a.m.

A volunteer firefighter from the Middle River Volunteer Ambulance Rescue company suffered a non-lifethreatening injury and was transported to Bayview Medical Center.

Though the fire was not officially a two-alarm blaze, nearly two alarms worth of equipment responded.