Colonial Opticians fire in Bethesda under investigation by private firm

NEFCO, a top private investigation firm, has been hired to investigate the recent fire at Colonial Opticians at 4942 St. Elmo Avenue in downtown Bethesda. The fire, which Montgomery County fire officials said was likely caused by a power strip in the store's laboratory area, resulted in the permanent closure of the business. NEFCO uses high-tech methods to determine the cause of fires, and has its own labs for forensic examination of evidence. The building that houses the store is expected to be demolished in the near future to make way for a new apartment tower.

NEFCO is typically brought in to determine the cause of a fire, identify or rule out arson, and identify the responsible parties to recover losses for insurers. The company has never failed a Daubert challenge, a legal motion in U.S. courts made with the aim of excluding unreliable or irrelevant expert witness testimony, based on the Supreme Court case Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals (1993). Judges use the Daubert standard to assess if expert testimony is based on sound scientific methodology, and relevant to the case, in an effort to ensure a jury only receives credible evidence from "expert" testimony.

Colonial Opticians won't reopen in Bethesda after fire

Colonial Opticians has announced its store at 4942 St. Elmo Avenue in Bethesda is now permanently closed. The store was heavily damaged by an electrical fire Sunday night, November 30, 2025. Customers are being directed to the chain's Rockville location at 1776 E. Jefferson Street at Federal Plaza. Colonial Opticians has not ruled out a return to Bethesda in the future, but an expensive repair of its fire-damaged space makes little sense, as the building is expected to be demolished for a new apartment tower.

Fire at Colonial Opticians in Bethesda (Photos)

Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service personnel responded to a fire at Colonial Opticians at 4942 St. Elmo Avenue in Bethesda at 9:45 PM last night, November 30, 2025. The fire occurred in the store's lab area, and is currently believed to have been caused by an overloaded or malfunctioning power strip, MCFRS spokesperson Pete Piringer said. Over 50 firefighters were ultimately dispatched to the scene.

The electrical fire caused $300,000 in damage to the building, and $200,000 in damaged or destroyed merchandise or equipment, Piringer said today. No injuries were reported.

Fire in garage at Ellis Bethesda apartments (Photos)

Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service personnel responded to a fire at the Ellis Bethesda apartment tower at 4918 St. Elmo Avenue this afternoon. Around 3:20 PM, a vehicle fire was reported in the building's underground parking garage. Firefighters located the vehicle on a lower level of the garage, and extinguished the fire. However, a significant amount of smoke remained in the garage.

MCFRS personnel remained on-scene to assist in ventilating smoke from the garage. Very little smoke entered the residential floors of the building, so there was no need to evacuate the tower, MCFRS spokesperson Pete Piringer said. No injuries were reported. As a high-rise incident, the response from MCFRS and other departments was substantial, including at least one unit from the nearby National Institutes of Health. 

Fire at The Elm apartment tower in Bethesda (Photos)

UPDATE - 7:48 PM: MCFRS spokesperson Pete Piringer reports the cause was a malfunctioning microwave, and that there is no further fire or smoke present in the building.

Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service personnel are responding to a fire at an apartment tower in downtown Bethesda. Around 7:00 PM this evening, a fire was reported in a unit on the 9th floor of the The Elm at 4710 Elm Street, one of the tallest residential buildings in Montgomery County. A ladder could be seen extending to an upper floor. The fire started in the kitchen of the apartment, MCFRS spokesperson Pete Piringer said. 

No injuries have been reported so far. More than a dozen units are at the scene. It's concerning that the years-long extended closure of Elm Street at Wisconsin Avenue hampers full ease of access to the building by emergency vehicles. This could be problematic in a major emergency event.

Firefighters respond to 7-Eleven in downtown Bethesda (Photos)

UPDATE - June 24, 2025 at 2:04 PM: 7-Eleven has reopened.

Montgomery County police and Fire and Rescue Services personnel responded in great numbers to the 7-Eleven store at 7820 Wisconsin Avenue in downtown Bethesda shortly before 10:30 PM tonight. Firefighters put ladders up to the roof of the convenience store, and unrolled a hose at the rear service door. They also carried a ladder into the rear of the store.

Police officers directed traffic on Wisconsin Avenue, where fire equipment blocked travel lanes. After about twenty minutes inside the building, personnel packed up and began leaving the scene. MCFRS has not yet made a public comment on the incident. This story will be updated as additional information becomes available.

Firefighters investigate smoke in wooded area on Goldsboro Rd. in Bethesda

Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service personnel responded to a report of smoke on Goldsboro Road near River Road in Bethesda this afternoon. The smoke was spotted rising from a wooded area behind Concord-St. Andrew's United Methodist Church at 5910 Goldsboro Road after 3:00 PM. Firefighters attempted to locate the source of the smoke from the church property side, and the Goldsboro side. MCFRS spokespersons have not commented on the incident yet. This story will be updated if more information becomes available.

Firefighters respond to report of smoke at 8001 Woodmont apartments in Bethesda (Video + Photos)

Smoke in the parking garage of the 8001 Woodmont apartments in downtown Bethesda drew a large response from Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service personnel, temporarily closing down Woodmont Avenue in the vicinity of St. Elmo Avenue shortly after 9:00 PM tonight. Firefighters eventually cleared the scene, but no further information about the incident has been released by MCFRS as of this writing, including whether there was a fire at all. It's also unclear why a ladder was extended to an upper floor of the building at one point.

A witness reported that a few minutes before the fire response began, a man in a small cleaning vehicle was working on the ramp of the garage. He reportedly drove the vehicle away after firefighters arrived at the scene. Was this a "dustbuster" truck that may have stirred up clouds in the garage that resembled smoke? 

Montgomery County allowed 15-story Westwood Tower in Bethesda to operate without fire alarms for 2 months

The Montgomery County government and owner Housing Opportunities Commission of Montgomery County allowed residents to occupy the 15-story Westwood Tower apartments for two months without an operating fire alarm system. County officials have now condemned the high-rise building at 5401 Westbard Avenue in Bethesda after an electrical fire brought the existing violations to light this past weekend, and further damaged the building's electrical systems. In lieu of a functioning fire alarm system, HOC had posted signs inside the tower instructing residents to "evacuate and call 911" in case of a fire. The signs did not advise how residents who might be asleep during a fire would be aware one had broken out, nor how their neighbors in the approximately 200 apartments would be notified on more than a dozen floors.

Sign posted inside Westwood Tower after the
building's fire alarm system went down on November 9, 2023;
it was never repaired, and the building was condemned after
a fire on January 6, 2024

After the fire alarm system broke down on November 9, 2023, the HOC stationed personnel in the building lobby to be on-duty in case of a fire. It was unclear how one person could physically cover 15 floors (not to mention without an elevator),and knock on hundreds of doors, in the few seconds that might be needed for all residents to safely evacuate. One resident reported that these employees were sometimes seen dozing off in the lobby. Residents report that the HOC never informed them of a timeline for restoration of the fire alarm system. "Fire officials have repeatedly been called to the building because of the lack of a fire alarm," one resident said, and that the building has been "cited repeatedly because of a lack of fire alarm."

Generator outside the building, which has
no power; residents have been relocated

The insanity of the idea of one person being able to function as a human fire alarm for a 15-story building became clear this past Saturday night, when a transformer blew inside the building. Several residents I spoke to reported that not only were there no fire alarms sounding, but the backup "human fire alarm" in the lobby did not contact any of them. They smelled and saw smoke, and self-evacuated, alerting other residents on their way out of the building. One resident who lives on a floor that did not initially have smoke only learned the building was on fire when a friend who lived on a smoke-filled floor called them to say there was a fire, and to get out. 

Residents report that they were left freezing in the building from 6:00 PM Saturday night, until the building was condemned and evacuated 24 hours later. Power in the building was limited, and there was no heat at all. Security functions to keep non-residents and potential criminals out of the building were inoperable.

To top it off, the HOC initially refused to provide alternative shelter to residents, advising them to instead make a claim on their own apartment insurance to cover the cost of hotel rooms. As the details began to reach the public a day later, Montgomery County agencies announced they were providing off-site shelter. The HOC said the residents were being moved to hotels in the area. Residents were told that they could be displaced from the building for as long as three weeks.

There is concern among residents, given the County's inaction regarding the fire alarm outage in the preceding weeks and the building's ownership being politically affliated with the elected officials who appoint and oversee them, that repairs will be allowed to drag on. Last night, two extremely loud generators roared outside the darkened apartment tower. There was no visible activity at the building. 

Residents of HOC properties have long pointed out issues regarding health and safety in their buildings. Those complaints were backed up by the findings of federal inspections, which found 75% of the units they inspected failed to meet federal standards. It now appears the agency was allowed to violate the County's fire code for two months, by operating a building without functioning smoke and fire alarms to alert occupants.

The HOC acquired the building several years ago with grand plans to construct more buildings and garages on the property. When those plans were stymied by protests that arose when the agency announced it intended to build a parking garage on top of the Moses African Cemetery at the rear of the property - where many of the graves were desecrated during the building's construction in the late 1960s, the HOC then attempted to sell it to a private developer. That sale was temporarily blocked by a Montgomery County court injunction, and the buyer backed out of the transaction. The dispute - that the HOC tried to sell the land with the cemetery without notifying the descendants of those interred there, in violation of Maryland law - will be ruled on by the Maryland Supreme Court later this year.

The County and the HOC are only fortunate that Saturday's fire was not more serious. This could have been a catastrophic disaster, had a fast-moving fire engulfed the building. Elected officials have yet to criticize the situation that existed at the property; in fact, the County Councilmember who represents the area has so far tweeted only praise for County agencies.