Two Alarm Fire in Sykesville

Around 10:24 last night, a single phone call was made to 911 for a report of smoke coming from the front of a building located next to the McDonald's on Liberty road. With that report, a Box alarm was transmitted bring multiple companies from Carroll, Baltimore and Howard counties to respond.
Engine 142 responded quickly with a crew of 4 volunteers, and arrived as the second engine on the scene. Tower 12 (Sykesville) was first to arrive minutes after dispatch and reported smoke coming from the front of the strip mall style building and advised this would be a working fire. This brought additional resources as well as Winfield's second engine (engine 141) which responded immediately after dispatch with a crew of 4 volunteers.
Crews worked through the bitter cold and high winds to extinguish this fire that ripped through the roof line above the occupied building. Due to the amount of work and the freezing cold temperatures, the incident commander requested a 2nd alarm to relieve the initial companies who had been working and also asked for the canteen service for approx. 70 firefighters who were on the scene.
Extensive overhaul of the building was needed to expose any hot spots that may have been concealed by the front of the building to ensure the fire was completely extinguished. Crews had to operate through water that froze almost instantly when it touched the road surface, and also frozen water through the hose lines that were operated to extinguish the fire.
After operating on the scene for almost 2 hours the fire was declared out, and crews could begin to clean up. Crews from Winfield returned home around 1am.
Winfield would like to thank the volunteers from Mt. Airy who provided engine coverage at our station for the duration of the fire.