Massive fire destroys 7400-square-foot mansion in Montgomery County | FOX 5 DC

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A 7400-square-foot mansion burned down to the ground in Montgomery County after a fire broke out. More than 75 firefighters responded to the home in the 21700 block of Peachtree Road near Barnesville Road in Dickerson. (Credit: Tim Pruss)

DICKERSON, Md. - A 7400-square-foot mansion burned down to the ground in Montgomery County after a fire broke out.

More than 75 firefighters responded to the home in the 21700 block of Peachtree Road near Barnesville Road in Dickerson.

The property was completely destroyed by the blaze but thankfully all of the occupants – a couple and their three kids, their au pair and the family dog – made it out safely. Their smoke alarms were working and they quickly self-evacuated, the Fire Department says.

Fire investigators believe that the fire started outside the home. The initial call at 2:30 a.m. from the homeowner, who at that point said the back of the house was on fire.

When firefighters arrived at the scene, they found the two-story home heavily engulfed in flames and the situation progressed to where the windows were blowing out.

Eventually, the flames, which could be seen shooting from every part of the structure, consumed the entire house. The fire spread to vehicles and the driveway.

While the home had sprinklers there was no fire hydrant nearby, so Montgomery County Fire and Rescue had to activate its water supply task force, sending a fleet of six tanker trucks to nearby lakes and cisterns to keep bringing water to the scene.

Typically, fire crews can put out a house fire in an urban area with 3000 gallons. This has used more than 60,000 gallons. In all, it took a team of about 80 firefighters to knock down the flames.

Bits of burned-up roof paper and insulation are scattered for acres but Montgomery County Fire and Rescue says as catastrophic as this scene is, it was almost much worse.

"We did have some embers. It would have been a lot worse had we not had this rain probably would have been dealing with some fires here and there but the rain helped with that," Montgomery County Fire spokesperson Pete Piringer said.

The family had to make arrangements to board their two horses and two donkeys at another farm. It’s not clear exactly what caused the fire.

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