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Yellow PagesShore fire ruled accidental, started in car engine
A fire yesterday that caused more than $1 million in damage to a single-family home in St. Michaels on the Eastern Shore started in a car engine and has been ruled accidental, the state fire marshal's office said this morning.
The car was parked under a breezeway between the garage and the house when the fire was first reported shortly after 4 p.m. in the 6500 block of Cedar Cove Road in Talbot County, fire officials said.
Two alarms were sounded, bringing more than 60 firefighters to the scene. It took them 90 minutes to bring the fire under control.
One firefighter from the St. Michaels Volunteer Fire Company, Eugene Messick, was treated overnight at Easton Memorial Hospital after he suffered chest pains and had trouble breathing while fighting the fire, officials said.
A statement from the fire marshal said damage is estimated at $750,000 to the structure and $300,000 to contents. The fire marshal also said there were no smoke alarms in the wood-frame house owned by Don and Eleanor Gearheart.
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