Rockville family loses everything ahead of holidays after fire destroys house

A Maryland family is starting over after a fire destroyed their house a little over a week before Christmas.

They’ve lived in the home on Beaver Terrace in Rockville for 30 years, now reduced to rubble and ash.

The flames gutted the walls, and the bedrooms are now unrecognizable.

Marali Duarte was inside the home with her three-year-old son when the fire started. She says her instincts kicked in.

“‘Come, let’s go. We have to go. We have to get out of the house,’” she described saying.
“[…] It was just a lot. It’s really hard to see your home being engulfed in flames and smoke everywhere. Tons of firefighters there. You never thought it would be you, you know.”

They were able to make it out safely, which Duarte says she’s eternally grateful for.

She’s not sure how exactly the fire started but was told by fire crews that it may have been sparked by a wiring issue from one of the cars in their driveway. Montgomery County Fire and Rescue is still investigating the cause.

“It’s a few days before my birthday. It’s right before the holidays,” Duarte said. “My son doesn’t have much clothes, and he lost all his toys at the house. Even his new Christmas ones that we just got and haven’t even wrapped yet, but, you know, we’re figuring it out. We’re going through it.”

She says other family members have stepped in to help. Neighbors have been there to offer their support. The Red Cross is helping the family out by putting them up in a hotel and an online fundraiser has been established to help them out financially. Still, Duarte says it’s hard to come to terms with losing such a monumental part of her family’s life — a place filled with so many memories.

“This was the house that everyone came to for the holiday. This was the main house, you know,” she said. “There’s a lot of memories there, and I was having my son also grow up there, too, so it kind of sucks, you know.”

So much was lost in the flames, but Duarte said their gratitude remains because they still have each other to lean on.

“These are materialistic things. Materialistic things can be replaced. Maybe not some of the sentimental things that you kept, but things can be replaced. Our lives cannot be replaced,” she said. “[…] This is a house, but a family makes a home, and the home is okay. That’s what matters.”