A fire broke out on Solomons Island in southern Maryland today and, fanned by high winds, destroyed two popular inns, a small apartment building and two boats before it was brought under control, authorities said.

The blaze started shortly after 12:30 p.m. at Bowen's Inn on the island at the southern tip of Calvert County, then quickly spread to the nearby Lighthouse Inn and an adjacent four-unit condominium, said Faron Taylor, a deputy state fire marshal. Two boats and a dumpster also caught fire, he said.

"Right now we're looking at Bowen's Inn as the point of origin," based on witness interviews and damage assessments, "but we're still investigating," Taylor said. A spokeswoman for the Calvert County fire and rescue department said earlier that the fire appeared to have started at the Lighthouse Inn.

Advertisement

The Lighthouse Inn, a historic building that houses a popular three-level restaurant overlooking the Patuxent River and Solomons harbor, was "a total loss," the spokeswoman said.

Taylor said there were no reports of injuries and that the cause of the fire was not immediately known. Nor was there any estimate of the damage.

Scott Belanger, 49, the owner of a condo next to the Lighthouse Inn, said he received a call at his office that Bowen's Inn was on fire, then began to worry when he got a second call telling him that the blaze had reached the Lighthouse Inn.

"By the time I got to the condo, it was completely gone," said Bowen, one of several people made homeless by the blaze. He said most of his property was replaceable -- except for his collection of sports memorabilia, including a football jersey autographed by former Baltimore Colts star Johnny Unitas.

Advertisement

Nearly three dozen pieces of fire equipment from four counties -- Calvert, St. Mary's, Charles and Anne Arundel -- responded to the blaze, as did two private tugboats with firefighting capabilities. The boats crossed the harbor to lend assistance in battling the fire, which was reported largely contained by mid-afternoon.

Solomons Island, located where the Patuxent River meets the Chesapeake Bay, is a former yacht-building center that has evolved into a tourist attraction, with charter-boat fishing and recreational boating.

The firefighting efforts were complicated by 40-mph winds, which blew embers over the island and caused new fires to break out.

The windy and dry conditions prompted the National Weather Service to issue a "red flag warning" about wildfires for all of Maryland except Garrett County. The service said the winds had combined with low relative humidity and low fuel moistures to create ideal conditions for wildfires.

More than 160 wildfires have consumed 363 acres in Maryland in the past two weeks.

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7uK3SoaCnn6Sku7G70q1lnKedZK6zr8eirZ5nkqrAqrrErKporJWYta%2B7y6iesmdiZX13e49sZmptX5e5osbEZpueq6SnvLq%2FjK2uqGWZo7u0ec6nZKynnKS6sLrSZqCspJGjsXCCmJ%2BbbWpobXqkspKdZG2dkph6oq6QnWRtmmdofXN%2Bwp2aa3Bf