Firefighters were alerted to a commercial building fire this afternoon in Landover Hills. Fire/EMS units were dispatched at about 1:25 PM, Monday, February 1, 2010, to the Mini-U-Storage at 3800 64th Avenue for a report of smoke coming from one of the storage lockers. Firefighters arrived to find heavy smoke coming from an entire row of storage lockers and a second alarm was sounded. A total of 60 firefighters knocked down the bulk of the fire within 45 minutes. These self storage containers pose a tremendous amount of hazards to firefighters in addition to an abundance of work to overhaul and ensure the fire is completely extinguished. The self-storage lockers involved contained a variety of materials including furniture, boxes of paper, automotive equipment and a myriad of other combustible items.

Two firefighters sustained lacerations to their hands during the overhaul operation. A 26 year-old male fire fighter sustained a minor laceration and was transported to a nearby hospital. Paramedics transported a 26 year-old male firefighter with a more serious hand injury to a specialty trauma center in Baltimore that specializes in hand injuries. Both firefighters are considered to be in good condition.

The cause of the fire is under investigations and damage estimates are still being tabulated.