Boy Dies in Maryland Fire That Damaged 16 Apartments

A seven-year-old boy who was critically injured in an apartment fire in a Baltimore neighborhood has died, authorities said Sunday.

The Baltimore County Fire Department said in a news release that Clinton Chimobi Ezeamaka died Saturday in the pediatric burn unit at The Johns Hopkins Hospital.

Investigators determined that the fire at the apartment building in the Gwynn Oak neighborhood resulted from improperly discarded cigarettes in the apartment directly below the victim’s third-floor apartment. The news release said investigators found a large volume of combustible materials, specifically clothing and debris, on the balcony of the apartment where the fire started.

The fire spread upward and burned into the building’s roof structure so that the boy was trapped with heat and fire beneath and fire above him, according to the news release.

There was damage to 16 apartments, making them uninhabitable. Seven people were displaced, fire officials said. The fire has been ruled accidental.