Driver escapes injury after crashing into Poolesville post office

A driver escaped unharmed after crashing into the U.S. Post Office at 19800 Fisher Avenue in Poolesville Monday, January 27, 2025. Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service spokesperson Pete Piringer said the driver declined an ambulance ride to the hospital for further testing, after being evaluated at the scene by paramedics. Fortunately, no patrons were on the sidewalk or in the lobby area at the time of the collision. A County building inspector was called in to ensure the structural integrity of the library, and determine the extent of the damage, Piringer said.

Photo courtesy MCFRS/Pete Piringer

Montgomery County firefighter among 226 to be honored at National Fallen Firefighters Memorial Weekend

A former Montgomery County firefighter will be among 226 fallen firefighters to be honored at the National Fallen Firefighters Memorial Weekend in Emmitsburg, Maryland on May 4 and 5, 2024. Master Firefighter Mark R. Fisher Jr. passed away on July 24, 2014 from illness related to his response to the attack on the Pentagon on September 11, 2001. Fisher was also a member of the Maryland Task Force One Urban Search and Rescue Team, with whom he responded to other disasters, including Hurricane Katrina. He was with the Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service for 22 years, and also served as an instructor for the department. 

Fisher was a member of the Johnny Swamper Club, Frederick Elks Lodge No. 684, and the Loyal Order of the Moose No. 948 in Charles Town, West Virginia, and a life member of the United Steam Fire Engine Company, No. 3 Frederick. He left behind a wife, three children and five grandchildren. Fisher briefly played pro football with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He was 59 years old at the time of his passing.

Two main events will be held on the memorial weekend at the National Fallen Firefighters Memorial Park in Emmitsburg. The National Fallen Firefighters Candlelight Service will be held on May 4 at 7:30 pm ET, hosted by Fire Captain Garon Mosby of the St. Louis Fire Department. The National Fallen Firefighters Memorial Service is on May 5 at 10:00 am ET, and will be hosted by actor Jeremy Holm. Both events are open to the public, but will also be streamed online live for those who cannot attend in person.

Montgomery County Fire Chief Scott Goldstein announces he will retire

Montgomery County Fire Chief Scott Goldstein announced this morning that he will retire after 31 years of service with the Montgomery County Fire & Rescue Service. He has served as chief for 8 of those years. Goldstein's last day will be June 30, 2023. MCFRS has been considered one of the top fire departments in the nation under his leadership.

“Chief Goldstein has given this County so much since he first started with the Kensington Volunteer Fire Department in 1987,” County Executive Marc Elrich said in a statement this morning. “We have leaned on his expertise and skills as a leader and watched the department grow under his leadership. Over the past few years, Chief Goldstein has worked with me and other County leaders to make this a smooth transition and I thank him for his service to the men and women of MCFRS and the people of this County.” 

Goldstein has accepted the Fire Chief position for Cowlitz 2 Fire & Rescue in Kelso, Washington and will begin serving in that post July 17. “It is my honor and pleasure to be part of this great department and to have the opportunity to serve as your fire chief,” Goldstein said in a statement.

Gaithersburg explosion under investigation

Montgomery County officials are investigating a massive explosion that occurred at the Potomac Oaks Condominiums at 780 Quince Orchard Road in Gaithersburg yesterday morning. An official cause has not yet been declared. Residents of at least one unit were unaccounted for, and several people were transported to local hospitals with injuries sustained in the blast and its aftermath. Search dogs have been brought in to locate anyone who might be buried in the rubble.

More than twenty units at the complex were destoryed or are currently uninhabitable, displacing dozens of residents. A temporary shelter has been set up at Bohrer Park. Last night, local restaurant Medium Rare served those displaced residents free steak dinners. If you would like to provide direct support to those displaced residents, an official website has been set up here to make financial contributions.

Photo courtesy Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Services

Pedestrian struck at Rio Lakefront in Gaithersburg

Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Services personnel are responding to a report of a pedestrian being struck at Rio Lakefront in Gaithersburg. The victim was struck in front of the Target store, according to the MCFRS dispatcher. There is so far no report on the victim's injuries.

Clarksburg, Laytonsville firefighters redeployed to other fire stations due to Covid-19 case surge

The omicron Covid-19 case surge has put additional strain on Montgomery County Fire and Rescue resources. 110 career and 23 volunteer firefighters are unable to report to work due to coronavirus protocols. 75 others are out for other reasons. This totals 9% of the firefighter pool, forcing Montgomery County to take several steps to staff fire stations countywide.

Among the actions taken was the reassignment of some staff from Clarksburg's Aerial Tower ladder truck, and from the Laytonsville Rescue Squad heavy rescue unit, to other stations around the county. The reason given was that these stations receive fewer service calls. "I want to thank MCFRS for these prudent decisions, wish all sick and isolating employees a speedy recovery, and recognize the hard work of all our firefighters and paramedics during these challenging times," County Executive Marc Elrich said in a statement. "I also encourage all residents to be aware of these staffing shortages and remember to only call or use 9-1-1 services in emergency situations.”

Text to 911 now available in Maryland

Callers in emergency situations who cannot, or do not wish to, speak on the phone now have a silent option. Text-to-911 service is now available in the state of Maryland. Residents and visitors alike can contact emergency services via text using the service.

To use Text-to-911 service, follow these steps:

1. Enter 911 in the “To” line.

2. Enter a brief message that includes the location of the emergency and type of service needed – police,              fire, or ambulance.

3. Hit send.

4. Respond to questions from the responding 911 specialist, and follow the instructions he or she provides.

Montgomery County Council passes massive developer tax cut, now wants to cut pay for cops, firefighters

The Montgomery County Council voted 7-2 yesterday to approve a massive property tax cut for developers, estimated to cost taxpayers from $400 million to upwards of a billion dollars over the next 15 years.After overturning County Executive Marc Elrich's veto of the developer tax cut, the Council is now seeking to cut hazard pay for police officers, firefighters, Ride On bus drivers and other frontline essential employees who are at high-risk of contracting Covid-19 daily during the coronavirus pandemic.

Yesterday's vote continues two disturbing trends by the Montgomery County Council: a continued shift of the tax burden from developers (who contribute to all nine councilmembers' campaigns) to workers and homeowners, and the ongoing practice by the Council of breaking labor agreements. 

While property taxes on homeowners have risen each year except 2014 (in which the average homeowner got a $12 tax cut - gee, thanks!), large developers have enjoyed tax cut after tax cut on property and impact taxes over the last decade. It started with a $72 million developer tax cut in 2010. Remember how your energy taxes were hiked, and an ambulance fee levied, around the same time to make up for that developer giveaway? Yep.

Combined with the County's failure to attract high-wage jobs or a single major corporate headquarters in over 20 years, outsize spending by Council, and the flight of the rich due to record-high tax burdens, the developer pay-days have blown an atomic bomb-size hole in the County budget. The result is a structural budget deficit as far out as the forecasts go.

So we've known by the last decade that massive residential development results in a deficit, as the costs this new housing creates for services like schools, infrastructure and social spending far outstrips the revenue it generates. 

We also know there's little demand for luxury apartments, as a large percentage of the new units delivered since 2010 are filled with airbnb hotel guests, college students and corporate contract residents, none of whom pay full-freight rent. In fact, the Council admitted there's no demand for high-rise housing atop Metro stations when introducing the new tax cut - and they're going to bust the budget and hike your taxes to build something nobody wants, just so they and their developer sugar daddies can still make a profit on it.

And we've learned that the affordable housing "crisis" isn't actually a crisis, because the Housing Opportunities Commission was able to move hundreds of people out of The Ambassador apartments into vacant units elsewhere and demolish the building, while the owners of affordable Halpine View said they have no takers for their vacant units in Rockville. Whoops! 

The shift in revenue burden has also moved from the large, international development firms that contribute to the Councilmembers' campaigns to the mom-and-pop developers who live in the community and build or expand single-family homes. Not only did the Council hit them with new regulations and tax hikes like the recordation tax, but they've recently sought to levy an all-new "teardown tax" on these small building firms. When you know that the Council's long-term goal is to change zoning to allow urban development in existing single-family-home neighborhoods, you can understand why they're trying to clear the construction field for the big guys.

But the Council isn't done spreading the unfairness around!

Now it wants to take hazard pay away from first responders and frontline employees that is in already-negotiated labor agreements. While the Council hides at home on Zoom meetings, these police officers and firefighters are responding to calls and speaking with often-unmasked citizens on a daily basis. Ride On drivers are helping similarly-essential personnel get to work, and low-income residents get to medical appointments, while exposing themselves to the virus on every shift. 

The same Council didn't even give our police officers a sufficient supply of PPE and hand sanitizer. How interesting that the same councilmembers - Hans Riemer (D - At-Large) and Andrew Friedson (D - District 1) spearheading the $1 billion tax cut for developers yesterday are also leading the charge to cut hazard pay for cops and firefighters. 

Now, even as the councilmembers' own $140,000 paychecks increase year after year, they want to again renege on labor agreements. County employees are counting on these agreements when planning the financial future of their families. The Council wants to take food off their tables during a pandemic, and turn it into cash for their campaign donors - and into future campaign checks for themselves.

It's outrageous.

Gaithersburg, Germantown, Clarksburg, Damascus hit by unusual January storm

Damaged car on
Norbeck Road

The upcounty area of Montgomery County is being pounded by severe storms this morning. A tornado was issued for parts of Gaithersburg and Germantown, as well as the northeast corner of the upcounty near the Howard and Carroll County borders. Flooding has been reported across the upcounty, as have fallen trees and power lines. The whole county is being hit by the unusual February summer-style storm, but the upcounty is being affected the most.

Power lines, tree down on
Darnestown Road at
White Ground Road

Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Services have received so many emergency calls that they are now operating under Condition Red, which means there may be longer response times, particularly for non-critical incidents. Violent weather and storm damage have also impacted parts of Poolesville, Rockville and Silver Spring, most notably in the Dawsonville, Norbeck Road and Layhill Road areas.

Route 109 is currently blocked between MD 355 and the I-270 overpass after a tree fell across the roadway. Some lanes are also blocked at Route 28 and Route 107. Trees are also reported down by MCFRS on Circle Gate Drive in Germantown.

Photos by Pete Piringer/MCFRS

Montgomery County 911 system fails again

Officials don't know how

many emergency calls went

unanswered during outage

Montgomery County's 911 system failed twice Thursday, according to the Montgomery County Police Department, which does not operate the system. An MCPD spokesperson said that County officials cannot, as of now, tell them how many urgent 911 calls went unanswered during the service interruptions, but that the department is aware of one caller in need of basic life support medical services who was affected.

Callers who dialed 911 around 8:30 AM yesterday morning - and again between 9:35 and 9:43 AM - could not get through to the 911 call center, and instead heard a message saying they number they'd reached was out of service. According to MCPD, the failure was traced to a network outage between system components.

There is no indication that the Alert Montgomery system informed citizens of either outage. Montgomery County Government has yet to post any statement regarding the outages as of this writing.

It was exactly three years ago that I broke the story of a similar 911 system failure. Later, the County tried to cover up the fact that Alert Montgomery had failed to issue alerts to subscribers until long after the outage had ended. Two people were confirmed to have died has a result of that 2016 911 system failure, 

Yet despite their failure having fatal results for two of their constituents in 2016, the County Council has clearly failed to change its ways. Here we are again, with another 911 outage three years later. Similarly, the Council failed to upgrade the public safety radio communications system for County first responders for more than a decade, deliberately kicking the can down the road to have more play money to spend on their cartel sugar daddies.

In fact, since taking the oath of office last December, the latest Council has failed to take action on a single major crisis. Not a single thing has been done to exercise oversight and update the 911 system, complete our master plan highway system, turn around our moribund economy that now ranks last in the region by every economic development benchmark, nor to address rising rates of violent crime.

Most of the current Council term has been spent on a grotesque attack on the men and women of the Montgomery County police department. The Council's continual slander, defamation and disparagement of Montgomery's finest only put our first responders and the public in greater danger. Which fits perfectly with the County Council's record of making public safety a low priority, to the point that there are actual people who have died as a result of their failure to address basic government issues like providing a functioning 911 system. It's outrageous.

Apartment kitchen fire in The Kentlands

Montgomery County firefighters are responding to a fire in the 300 block of Ridgepoint Place in The Kentlands development. According to scanner reports, a stove is on fire in a building there. The 3-story apartment building has been evacuated.

Fire reported at South Lake Elementary School playground in Montgomery Village

Montgomery County firefighters responded to a report of a fire at a playground in the Montgomery Village area of Gaithersburg this morning around 8:05 AM. The blaze was reported at the South Lake Elementary School playground, at 18201 Contour Road. No further information is available at the moment.

Damascus KFC evacuated due to natural gas leak

The KFC on Ridge Road in Damascus has been evacuated at this hour due to a natural gas leak, according to Montgomery County Fire and Rescue spokesperson Pete Piringer. There is a possiblity of a carbon monoxide leak, as well, Piringer says. A hazmat team is investigating.

Gaithersburg McDonald's shooting still under investigation

A Christmas Eve shooting at the McDonald's restaurant at 469 Frederick Avenue in Gaithersburg remains under investigation by Montgomery County Police detectives. What is known to this point, is that a firearm was reportedly discharged inside the restaurant around 8:00 PM that night. When police and firefighters responded, neither the alleged shooter nor victim were present.

Police found evidence of a shooting inside the McDonald's restroom. At that time, they were alerted that a gunshot victim had arrived at a local hospital. No information regarding how that patient arrived at the hospital has been made available as of press time, but the man has been interviewed by detectives.

Anyone with information regarding this incident or the person(s) involved is asked to contact the 6th District Investigation Section at 240.773.5770. Those who wish to remain anonymous may call Crime Solvers of Montgomery County at 240-773-TIPS (8477) or Text-A-Tip to: CRIMES (274637), text MCPD and your crime tip. Crime Solvers will pay a cash reward of up to $10,000 for information provided to them that leads to an arrest and/or indictment for this crime.

Sprinklers put out fire at Germantown apartment (Photo)

Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Services credit smoke alarms and sprinklers from preventing disaster at an apartment complex on Dovedale Way in Germantown Friday. Firefighters responded to a blaze in an apartment there that was quickly extinguished by the building's sprinkler system.

Smoke alarms alerted the resident, who escaped unharmed. That resident has been temporarily displaced from the apartment. MCFRS ventilated the apartment post-fire.

Photo: MCFRS

Tow truck company fire in Gaithersburg (Photo)

Multiple vehicles caught fire at a tow truck company in Gaithersburg Sunday. Hazardous or flammable materials posed a potential threat to firefighters responding to the blaze at Snouffer School Road and Mooney Drive.

Multiple combustibles and magnesium metal casings were near the vehicles, but fast work by firefighters minimized their exposure, Montgomery County Fire and Rescue spokesperson Pete Piringer said.

Photo by Pete Piringer, MCFRS

Fire at Hyatt House in Gaithersburg

Firefighters responded to a report of a "strong odor" Wednesday at the Hyatt House, an extended-stay hotel off Sam Eig Highway (I-370) in Gaithersburg along MD 355, according to MCFRS spokesperson Pete Piringer. Once they arrived, they located a fire in one unit's kitchen.

The 3-story hotel's sprinkler system kept the fire under control, Piringer said. Guests were evacuated during the incident. No injuries were reported.

2-alarm Kentlands fire sends 5 firefighters to hospital (Photos)

A fire in the Kentlands caused some scary moments for firefighters, as a section of the burning home's roof collapsed while they fought the heavy, 2-alarm blaze. Five firefighters were sent to local hospitals with non-life-threatening injuries, and no burns, Montgomery County Fire and Rescue spokesperson Pete Piringer said. The ambulance trips were primarily as a precaution, he said, to give them a full evaluation.

Firefighters arrived on the scene early this morning to find heavy fire at the 2-story home on Leekes Lot Way. The home's occupant managed to escape, Piringer said. A firefighter mayday was called during the battle when the roof portion collapsed, but all personnel were accounted for, he reported.

Piringer cited the chimney as the source of the fire, and that spread to the wood-shingled roof, attic and second floor. He noted that firefighters utilized master stream devices in tackling this fire.

Damage is estimated at $800,000.

Photos by Pete Piringer @mcfrsPIO on Twitter

Gaithersburg house fire causes over $15,000 in damage (Photo)

Improperly-discarded smoking materials caused a rear deck in Gaithersburg to catch fire Sunday, Montgomery County Fire and Rescue spokesperson Pete Piringer said. The fire began to spread from the deck before MCFRS personnel extinguished it, and the damage is estimated at over $15,000.

No one was injured in the blaze on Hidden Field Drive, but firefighters did replace 2 smoke detectors in the home.

Photo by Pete Piringer

Lab error led to hazmat situation at NIST in Gaithersburg

I have some additional details on Tuesday's hazmat incident at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Gaithersburg. The specific hazardous material was a combination of nitric acid and methanol often used in the etching of metals, Jennifer Huergo, NIST's Director of Media Relations said.

A researcher working with the substance stored it at room temperature without the venting necessary, Huergo said. Realizing the error, the researcher informed a supervisor, who called NIST's emergency response team. Ultimately, Montgomery County Fire and Rescue hazmat crews were brought in, and a bomb squad robot was utilized to stabilize the situation.

An examination of a similar chemical combination manufactured by Anachemia Chemicals suggests some of the potential concerns and hazards involved. It describes the material as potentially "toxic by inhalation," "severely corrosive to the skin," and says to "use with adequate ventilation."

Its vapor can cause flash fires, according to the Anachemia document, and requires firefighters to use carbon dioxide, chemical powder or foam to extinguish, rather than water.

No injuries were reported in relation to the incident.