‘More and more unusual’: Tunnels, wiring, chemicals found at Bethesda house fire site

WTOP News [Washington DC] ^ | September 26, 2017 6:01 pm | Megan Cloherty | @ClohertyWTOP

[COBOL2Java]

Firefighters were able to extinguish the fire rapidly, said Montgomery County Fire Battalion Chief Dan Ogren. (Courtesy Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service)

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WASHINGTON — Investigators are still working to find what caused a house fire that killed a man in Bethesda earlier this month. But the investigation is far from routine after investigators found tunnels, chemicals and wiring in the basement.

“The conditions in the basement became more and more unusual as the investigation went on,” Montgomery County Fire Chief Dan Ogren said Tuesday in describing the site of the house fire on Danbury Road.

Firefighters responded at around 4:30 p.m. Sept. 10 to the house in the Maplewood neighborhood of Bethesda. They found smoke coming out of all three levels of the house.

Initially, investigators said hoarding conditions created a challenge in fighting the fire. Ogren said they discovered what he has heard described as tunnels under the home the following day.

Ogren could not go into more detail. Paul Starks, a spokesman for the Montgomery County police, called it an “excavation underneath the home.”

The tunnels or excavation did not impede the fight against the fire, but Ogren said an ignited gas line certainly did. Crews had to dig up the front yard of the home to access the line and stop the gas flow.

In addition to the tunnels, Ogren said, investigators found chemicals that could be misused, and other “equipment,” in the basement.

[Cowboy Bob]

Maybe this was part of the “Underground Railroad?”

[MrEdd]

Or a prepper.

[caltaxed]

Could be nothing more than a do it your selfer with some sloppy wiring, couple of old paint and varnish cans in the basement and some old trenching around a sewer line.

Same as my house.

[MD Expat in PA]

Or a nut job.

[csvset]

They still haven’t ID’d the guy after two weeks? He wasn’t burnt to a crisp was he?

[COBOL2Java]

Could be nothing more than a do it your selfer with some sloppy wiring, couple of old paint and varnish cans in the basement and some old trenching around a sewer line.

Same as my house.

You got tunnels under your house? How far do they go?

[LittleSpotBlog]

Nothing that happens in Bethesda surprises me.

[T-Bone Texan]

I have a 1960s-era fallout shelter under my lawn in my back yard.

It came with the house.

For the record, I was already kooky before I even owned it.

[caltaxed]

Only had some digging around a new sewer line that I had to hide from the building inspector. He saw non-permitted construction at the front of the house driving by and red tagged my job. It has since been repaired after documenting everything they knew about with the city building department.

The sewer line was at the front of the house and took a few hours of digging.

[central_va]

I have a 1960s-era fallout shelter under my lawn in my back yard.

That's interesting.

[SaraJohnson]

Bethesda was really nice when I lived there. Changed?

[COBOL2Java]

I have a 1960s-era fallout shelter under my lawn in my back yard.

It came with the house.

For the record, I was already kooky before I even owned it.

That is very cool. Considering what they're reporting about this guy, I would wonder whether *his* tunneling was up to code. Local news reports are describing the homeowner as someone a few fries short of a Happy Meal.

[the OlLine Rebel]

This is Bethesda, the area in/around that funny triangle of the DC beltway and the I270 split.

I am quite sure they have public utilities of every kind to the house.

And being close to DC, and actually being liberal haven Montgomery County where we must “welcome” everyone, it’s probably either a drug lord (illegals) or Moslem bomb plant (esp. with wiring).

[central_va]

The eastern part of Montgomery county is an alien world. How can 3rd worlders afford to live there when the average house costs 400K and taxes are $800.00/mo?

[the OlLine Rebel]

“In the death investigation, the police are waiting on information from the medical examiner to identify the man who died, Starks said. Meanwhile, Ogren said the wiring and some other items are being tested at the Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms lab to aid in determining the cause and ignition source.”

Yeah, this is suspicious. Strange when the “friend” who survived does not straight up identify him?

These guys were up to no good, no matter which kind of illegal they might have been. Wires? I’d suspect more likely Moslem.

[blam]

'For the record, I was already kooky before I even owned it."

Great. I've always wanted one.

[browniexyz]

By any chance was the guy who lived there looking into the Clinton Foundation?

[caltaxed]

They make a federal case out of any building infraction here and it takes years for anything to get approved, especially gas and electrical. It took over a year and $12K to move my gas line a couple of feet.

[ptsal]

What is the 31-year old resident, the survivor, doing in this location, which is just north of Bethesda Hospital and near the Metro Station? More questions than answers.    More on the odd fire event:

Montgomery County Fire Battalion Chief Dan Ogren said responders found one man who had escaped from the home.

“He indicated that his friend was still in the house. Crews made entry into the house. They were able to extinguish the fire relatively rapidly, and they located the missing individual in the basement of the home. Unfortunately, the individual was deceased at the time,” Ogren told reporters down the street from the home.

The identities of the victims of the fire are not available. Ogren told reporters that the man who escaped the fire is 31-years-old.

http://wtop.com/montgomery-county/2017/09/one-dead-another-hospitalized-after-bethesda-house-fire/slide/2/