Four fires, three cities, and one fire department -- firefighters in Anne Arundel County were busy in the last 24 hours.
For the firefighters, rest has been a luxury.
"I was inside the salon and when I came outside, I saw the cloud of smoke and then of course all of the fire trucks got here," said Kelsey Jones, an employee at an Annapolis salon.
Her Tidewater Colony Drive building caught fire Monday afternoon.
"I saw all of these people running towards the building and I knew something right then was wrong because the salon is closed on Mondays," Jones said.
She says first responders quickly put out initial flame, but by then the fire left smoldering plastic and siding peeling off the multipurpose space.
"Fortunately, in all of those cases there were no injuries to any civilians," said Capt. Russ Davies. "Unfortunately, nine people as a result of those three fires have been displaced. We've also had two minor injuries to firefighters."
He said the office fire was 1 of 4 the county had to deal with in the last 24 hours -- the second of the day in Annapolis.
A fire brought a home down to charred 2x4s and melted metal in the Oyster Harbor community. Davies said while its been unseasonably warm, the recent cold might've played a part in some of county's fires.
"When it comes to what is typically recognized as the heating season, which would be December, January, February, now we're into early March, a lot of times it's devices people use to heat their homes that a lot of times causes the problem," he said.
While all the fires are under investigation, Davies has helpful tips for warming up your home.
"Check your fireplaces; have them inspected and their chimneys cleaned. Be careful with the use of space heaters, in a lot of cases we see that having combustibles too close to space heaters can cause problems."
Another tip: instead of changing your batteries on your smoke detector twice a year -- do so every month. But if you can't, still check when you change your clocks for daylight savings.
