WTTG
Reprinted with Permission

WASHINGTON - Eighteen people are homeless after a two-alarm fire damaged three row houses in northwest Washington before dawn.

A fire department spokesman says nobody was injured. About 100 firefighters were called to the scene early Monday after the blaze started in the roof of one house.

D.C. Fire and EMS spokesman Pete Piringer says a neighbor spotted the fire around 5 a.m.. Neighbors banged on the door and got people out of the house on Rhode Island Ave. NW.

Fire and smoke spread and damaged two neighboring row houses.

The cause is still under investigation. Piringer says the roof has a deck where a party was held the night before.