Fire Breaks Out in Dundalk Home Under Construction

Police are investigating a fire that broke out Thursday in a house under construction in Dundalk.

Crews were called to the scene at 12:46 p.m. for smoke showing from the single-family home in the 2600 block of Yorkway. No injuries were reported to workers or firefighters as a result of the incident, and fire investigators will work to determine the cause, police spokeswoman Cpl. Cathy Batton said.

"[Fire] personnel who were inside did hear a series of loud noises, but they were evacuated," Batton said. "Right now the structure is too unsafe for our personnel to be inside."

Upon arrival, fire crews searched the basement and upper two stories to make sure no one was inside the structure at the time of the fire, according to spokeswoman Louise Rogers-Feher.

"The search was negative; no one was in the building," she said.

Onsite engineers, worried about the "integrity and stability" of the building after the fire, asked fire personnel to leave the building, according to Rogers-Feher.

"They were worried about the building collapsing on our firefighters, and we certainly don't want that," Rogers-Feher said.

The cause of the fire, as well as the origin and cause of the loud noises, remain under investigation. The county's arson team will also investigate, Rogers-Feher said.