Odeh Odeh had just moved back to Baltimore a week ago. On Saturday, on April 13, 2018, he was picking up his friend and co-worker, Hussam, so they could carpool to work. His friend lived in the luxury apartment complex in the 2400 block of Bytham Court. The day had started late as both had worked late into the night on Friday. As he parked his car, Odeh says he looked up and saw smoke. Seeing a fire erupt, Odeh ran into the building to help people get out. He called his friend, who lived on the third floor in the apartment building next to the burning 2406, to warn him about the fire, which now had a visible flame. Boom. He heard a loud explosion as he ran inside.
“Get out! Get out! Get Out!” he boomed over the normally quiet complex. The smoke was increasing. “I was looking for the fire extinguisher but I couldn’t find one,” says Odeh. “I was just going in to make sure no one was sleeping. I was yelling loudly,” he says. 
Then he says he knows why Allah placed him there at that moment. A father holding a few months old baby opened the door of an apartment unit. An young girl seven or eight years old peered from behind her father. “Is it really that bad?” asked the father; clearly not wanting to take the little baby out if he didn’t have to. “Yes! Let’s go!” pushed Odeh, urging him. Odeh went up to the third floor where the smoke was thicker. He banged on several more doors and a few elderly people came out. “Some didn’t think it was serious,” he stresses. Then the alarms started sounding throughout the building. Then there were two smaller explosions. “I was surprised I didn’t think the fire would be that aggressive,” says Odeh.
The charred, rock covered walls, exposed foundation, burnt timber and furniture were visible after the partial collapse of the building. It took two hours to get the fire under control. When the fire fighters arrived the fire was going up the building and had already reached the attic space, according to Baltimore County Fire Department Division Chief Francis DiPaula, Jr.. He stated in a press conference that the fire was gas fed.
“It was that person, that baby, that little girl that Allah sent me for,” says Odeh. Odeh went in and out of the building three times—helping bring residents outside. Baltimore County fire officials said firefighters were called to the 2400 block of Bytham Court at 2:00 p.m.
The fire was controlled, and no injuries were reported.
A former personal trainer, who is a co-owner of the Discount Furniture and Mattress on Liberty Road, the Chicago born and raised Odeh’s family is from Palestine. He spent 10 years of his life in his ancestral homeland Silwad, near Ramallah.
Hussam, Odeh friend, and his wife are expecting a baby. They moved to a different apartment as their unit was damaged by the fire department.
In total twelve families were displaced, as all 12 units in the building were uninhabitable.
The principal of Al Rahmah School, Sister C. Islaah, lives in the same complex. Her apartment was safe but more than 50 neighbors lost their homes. Dozens of firefighters remained at the scene through the evening, hours after the fire was first reported.
Crews were still spraying water on a building that sustained massive damage.
A cause of the fire remains under investigation.
Odeh is looking forward to Hussam’s baby’s birth next week. They never did make it to work that day.
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