A 28-year-old man died after his Pikeville home caught fire in the early hours of Sunday morning.
Daniel James Hutchins, of the 8700 block of Lackawanna Avenue was found dead by a Baltimore County fire crew in the second-floor master bedroom when they arrived.
The cause of the fire is still undetermined at this time, officials said. However, Baltimore County police and fire investigators said the fire was not intentionally set.
There were two other people and two dogs in the house at the time of the fire. The two people were on the first floor and managed to escape just as the stairway collapsed, fire officials said.
Hutchins and one of the dogs were trapped upstairs and could not escape, according to authorities. Authorities have yet to say if the two people and the dog that escaped were injured or taken to the hospital.
Firefighters responded at 3:44 a.m. The first-arriving unit, Parkville’s Engine 10, found the entire house up in flames, authorities said. Officials said firefighters had to wait about an hour before they could enter the building because the fire was too intense.
When fire crews entered the building, they found that the fire had burned through the floor, as well as a 20-foot-by-10-foot hole in the roof. At one point commanders ordered all personnel to evacuate for safety.
–Derrell Reid