Welcome to Arundel Burning!

Welcome to Arundel Burning. This website is dedicated to the history of fire protection in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, and its neighboring jurisdictions.

The mission of Arundel Burning is to reveal and formally publish the history of fire fighting and fire protection in the Baltimore metropolitan area, mainly in Anne Arundel County.

In addition to the Arundel Park Fire Story, "They Shrieked - They Screamed - They Cried,the Arundel Park Fire 50 years later," there is now information about the tragic Tru Fit Clothing Store Fire on the site. The tragic fire occurred in Baltimore City in February 1955.

Click here to see an image of the Evening Sun's headlines and pictures of the deceased fire fighters.

Division Chief Donald Heinbuch, BCFD, was kind enough to provide two documents about the fire. The first, a four page article by Chief Heinbuch entitlted "Trufit Clothing Company Fire - 50th Anniversary, and the second, BCFD Official Anniversary Booklet which contains pictures and a three page article by V.B. Morris. Both documents can be found in the Articles' section.

Arundel Park:

Arundel Park 3D provides a computer generated graphic of the building based on information from the offical reports. There is also an operations' map that indicates where the various responding apparatus were located and positioned that evening. By clicking the individual apparatus boxes at the bottom of the map, a picture of the unit appears.

On the night of the fire, Mr.Ralph Yenger, a volunteer with the Brooklyn Fire Department and an amateur movie fan captured some of the early fire on 16mm film. It's less then 2 minutes and a little under exposed, however it provides the viewer with some insight into the heavy fire spread and the size of the facility. Mr. Yenger stands some distance away in front of the building panning from left (eastside) to right (westside). Towards the end of the film you can actually see the cross members of one of the huge truss assemblies(westside)as the built up tar paper/felt covered roof burns away.

Click here to view movie.

Some of the site sections are still under construction, please accept our apologies.

Updated 1/21/07