On Sunday July 16, 2006 at 1515 hours, Commercial Box 613 was sounded for the apartment fire at 6200 Solomons Island Road (Route 2/4 Liquors and China King Restauraunt). The assignment brought Company 6 (Huntingtown), Company 5 (Dunkirk), Engine 11 (North Beach), Company 2 (Prince Frederick), and Truck 42 (Deale). Chief 6A (Riffe) arrived within seconds reporting heavy smoke showing from a 2-story commercial building and established command. Upon investigation, a civilian was found in the rear of the building with a garden hose being pushed out of the back door due to the fire and intense smoke. Occupants were reporting heavy fire in two rear rooms with heavy smoke beginning to fill the first floor chinese restauraunt. Soon to follow, Chief 6 (Osbourn), Chief 6B (Hayes), Chief 6C (Spriggs), Engine 61 (Capt Patin), Engine 62 (Jones), Squad 6 (Rountree), Tanker 6 (Fitzgerald), Jeep 6 (Morgan), Ambulance 68 (Gadway, J) arrived along with Engine 52 (Sealey). The crews from Engine 61 and Engine 52 made immediate access to the basement and were able to bring the fire under control within a matter of minutes. The crew from Engine 11 was assigned to the 1st floor Division and Engine 21 to the 2nd floor Division. Squad 6 completed the searches (negative) and along with Tower 2 completed numerous special service tasks. During the incident the Working Fire Dispatch was alerted along with two additional ambulances (which were all quickly released). Due to an outstanding job by all units, nobody was injured and the remainder of the building was saved. The Health Department, Red Cross, SMECO, and Fire Marshall were also called to the scene. An unattended candle was the cause of the blaze. At 1728 hours, Command was terminated.
The Huntingtown Ladies Auxiliary Canteen Unit was also on scene and provided food and refreshments at the station.
