On the morning of February 22, Washington County 9-1-1 became flooded with calls reporting a fire on North Main Street in Boonsboro. Crews on Box 6-1 were alerted for a building fire at 07:42 hours this Friday morning. As calls continued to pour in, Station 6 called in over fire band immediately requesting the second alarm to be struck. Crews arrived to find the old Boone Hotel on the corner of North Main and St. Paul Street to be fully engulfed in flames and rapidly spreading.

Chief Griffith from Boonsboro Fire Co.6 arrived assuming Main Street Command and was beginning a rapid assessment of the situation as Truck 6 arrived to find they had people still in the building and reported trapped. Command at this point requested the completion of both 2nd and 3rd alarms on the assignment. Once requested, Command gave a report advising he had a three story commercial structure with heavy fire. Firefighters on the scene were faced with heavy exposures being threatened on all four sides of the structure.

As firefighters worked to battle the blaze and rescue occupants still in the structure, Town employees worked to prepare for the worst. As flames spread from one structure to another, efforts were made to evacuate equipment and important documents from the Town Hall just up the street from the fire. Crews working to bring the fire under control were not only faced with a heavy fire load but also with adverse weather conditions near freezing.

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