Kensington house fire with explosion leaves two displaced

Firefighters respond to 'gas-fed' blaze; two cats recovered unharmed

August 1, 2024 7:28 p.m.

Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service (MCFRS) crews extinguished what they described as a gas-fed fire with an explosion Thursday afternoon at a home at 4028 Byrd Road in Kensington, according to officials.

Crews on the scene reported a “gas-fed” fire involving the gas meter and electric meter, according to officials. All occupants were able to escape the two-story, single-family brick home, but one cat was initially reported missing.

MCFRS crews responded to the home at 2:43 p.m. and requested that the utility companies Washington Gas and Pepco respond to the scene immediately, according to radio transmissions.

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The occupants were alerted to the fire by a neighbor, Andrew Farkas, who said he smelled smoke while letting his dog out and went to the house. Farkas is the husband of MoCo360 publisher Jennifer Farkas.

“It smelled like somebody was barbecuing. And I thought to myself, ‘this is a weird time to barbecue,’ ” Farkas said. “And I looked over … I saw this black billowing smoke cloud pretty close to the house.”

Farkas helped his neighbors evacuate from the house. He also helped them rescue one of their two cats from the house.

At about 4:30 p.m., MCFRS spokesperson David Pazos wrote on social media that Washington Gas and Pepco were on the scene and securing the utilities. A cat initially reported missing was later found uninjured, he said.

While Farkas said he is glad everyone is safe, he was concerned that he had to make three calls to 911 before he was connected to an operator. He said the first two calls resulted in a busy signal and he received a prerecorded message in Spanish upon his third call. Finally, he got a call back from an operator who was able to assist him.

https://twitter.com/DavidPazos15/status/1819109899390853409

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