A house fire in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, left a 77-year-old woman dead Friday morning, according to the county’s fire department. The fire was reported by a neighbor around 10:35 a.m. at a house in the Millersville/Crownsville area of the county that was around a half-mile down a single-lane road on Generals Highway. The call said that up to four people may have been inside the residence. When firefighters arrived at the scene, they found the house was already blanketed with fire and smoke. Fire officials said that since there was a lack of fire hydrants in the rural area, two tanker task forces were requested, and around 45 firefighters and six tankers were at the scene. One firefighter suffered minor burns and was taken to a hospital.

@AACoFD on location of a working fire. 800 Block of Generals Hwy, Crownsville. Generals Hwy is closed between Veterans & Indian Landing Road. PIO on location. pic.twitter.com/Vpf0ktmhvP

— Anne Arundel County Fire Department (@AACoFD) September 25, 2020

Fire Capt. Erik Kornmeyer said a team was sent in immediately to check for potential victims. “We were able to remove one female resident. However, she was declared deceased on scene,” he said. “It was determined that the other three residents of the home were not home at the time of the fire.” After getting the woman out of the house, firefighters decided it was not safe to try to fight the fire from the inside, and shifted their efforts to prevent the fire from spreading. Kornmeyer said it took firefighters over an hour to get the fire “under control,” and firefighters were still working to completely extinguish it for several hours after that. The Red Cross was called to assist the other residents of the home: two adults and a child. An investigation into the cause of the fire is still pending, but the home has been declared a total loss. According to fire officials, this is the county’s third fire fatality this year. WTOP’s Thomas Robertson contributed to this report.