A fire tore over a strip mall store in Gaithersburg, Maryland, early Thursday, one of several fires in the area overnight. No injuries were reported.
It was a busy night for Montgomery County firefighters as they battled four blazes in about two hours. They were all outdoor fires in the same general area of Gaithersburg and Montgomery Village, Montgomery County Fire spokesman Pete Piringer said.
The roof of a Dollar Choice store on East Diamond Avenue was overrun with fire and smoke billowed from the building. The fire didn’t burn inside the store, but caused upwards of $180,000 worth of damage, officials said.
Other fires are under investigation on Divot Place, Dellcastle Road and Watkins Mill Circle. It's not clear if they were connected and no information about their causes was immediately available.
The first fire was reported about 1:30 a.m. on a shed and fence at the back of a home on Divot Place in Montgomery Village. The blaze melted siding on the home and caused about $30,000 worth of damage, Piringer said.
About 1:35 a.m., firefighters responded to a garage at a single-family home on Dellcastle Road. Two people inside the home weren’t aware of the blaze, but were safely evacuated, Piringer said.
Photos show the front of the garage blackened and a vehicle inside with blown-out windows covered in soot. Damage is estimated at $150,000.
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A car caught fire on Watkins Station Circle near the Firebird restaurant and spread to some nearby plants, Piringer said.
Stay with News4 for more on this developing story.
