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THERE WERE FIRES EVERYWHERE, SATURDAY, APRIL 20, 1963, by Joseph B. Ross Jr.  (Copyright © 2022 by Joseph B. Ross Jr.) Chapter 6 - Up And Down The East Coast At around one pm, as fire units were mopping up the fires along Race Road, Chief Clyde Willis decided it was time to head towards Dorrs Corner at Route 3 and Generals Highway since based on radio transmissions, the intersection seemed to be where all of the action was. However, he would first report to the Glen Burnie Station to see what the status was countywide. Harry Zlotowski would later...

THERE WERE FIRES EVERYWHERE, SATURDAY, APRIL 20, 1963, by Joseph B. Ross Jr.  (Copyright © 2022 by Joseph B. Ross Jr.) Chapter 7 -  Elvaton Road - The Power Lines  When Chief Willis arrived at the three-story, wood and brick, five- bay Glen Burnie VFD, Company 33, station located on Central Avenue, the place looked like a “disaster area.”   (The Glen Burnie VFD, Company 33, Fire Station. There were three additional bays on the Central Avenue side of the building. circa 1955. Photo - University of Maryland - Maryland Archives) The Red Cross had set up a shelter in...

THERE WERE FIRES EVERYWHERE, SATURDAY, APRIL 20, 1963, by Joseph B. Ross Jr.  (Copyright © 2022 by Joseph B. Ross Jr.) Chapter 8 -  Dorr's Corner - Ground Zero The huge Gambrills fire had now jumped the Route 3 highway and was burning fiercely on the eastside of the corridor. As Charlie Wilson and crew started to reel in the Brush 64’s hose line used to protect a house on the corner of the northbound lane of Route 3 and General’s Highway he received a radio transmission report from the Herald Harbor station. The station, now staffed by a Grasonville...

THERE WERE FIRES EVERYWHERE, SATURDAY, APRIL 20, 1963, by Joseph B. Ross Jr.  (Copyright © 2022 by Joseph B. Ross Jr.) Chapter 9 -  A Ring of Fire By mid afternoon twelve major fires ringed the Glen Burnie - Friendship Airport area in addition to the still out of control Gambrills fire. Fire units from as far away as Westminster, Sykesville, Reece, Taneytown and Manchester in Carroll County, New Market in Frederick County; Cordova, Sudlersville, Easton, Oxford, Grasonville and Cambridge from the Eastern Shore. Prince Georges County sent so many units that when fires broke out in Beltsville and along...

THERE WERE FIRES EVERYWHERE, SATURDAY, APRIL 20, 1963, by Joseph B. Ross Jr.  (Copyright © 2022 by Joseph B. Ross Jr.) Chapter 10 - Indian Landing Road and Last Stand At Arden As it looked like the worst was over for the homeowners and firefighters protecting the houses in Cedarcroft, four-wheel fire apparatus headed down to the power transmission line road that ran east to west between Generals Highway and Indian Landing Road. Units worked this area similar to what they did earlier on the power line road in Gambrills and managed to keep the fire to the north. Charlie...