Five people were displaced from a townhouse in the Park Potomac neighborhood Monday afternoon after a fire started in the HVAC system on the roof and went into the townhouse, according to a Montgomery County Fire & Rescue official said.
Fire & Rescue spokesman Pete Piringer wrote on Twitter Monday that the fire started just before 5 p.m. on the roof of a townhouse at 7804 Lindsay Terrace.
The fire, he wrote, started due to a malfunction in the HVAC system on the rooftop patio of the four-story townhouse. The fire then extended into the living area, Piringer wrote, causing $2.5 million in damage and displacing five adults in two families.
More than 100 firefighters came to the scene, Piringer wrote, and all of the townhouse occupants evacuated. Some were treated for injuries considered not life-threatening.
Dan Ogren, a fire and rescue spokesman, said in an interview Tuesday morning that the fire started in an air conditioner on the outdoor patio area of the roof.
“On the roof, there’s an inside portion and an outside patio portion, and my understanding is it started on the [outdoor] patio and then went into the inside area,” he said.
The townhouse is in a residential community adjacent to the Park Potomac retail development near the intersection of Montrose and Seven Locks roads. The shopping center includes a Harris Teeter grocery store.
Piringer wrote that some streets in the immediate area were closed Monday.
Dan Schere can be reached at daniel.schere@moco360.media
