Fire guts dorm, 4 injured

An intense fire in downtown Ocean City Tuesday morning left at least 13 people with little more than the clothes on their backs, and aid agencies rushing to accommodate the displaced.

The first call came in at 9:51 a.m. for flames on the upper floor of the Lazy Lizard Brew Pub on the southwest corner of Philadelphia Avenue and First Street.

Formerly the home of Melvin’s Steakhouse, before its purchase by the Lizard two years ago, the building houses a brewery and restaurant on the bottom floor, and a rooming house on the upper two stories.

“I went out into the hallway, and this was all the air there was left,” said Marvin Johnson, the building’s live-in maintenance man, motioning with his land less than a foot off the ground.

Johnson said he and other residents crawled on hands and knees down the hall, kicking each resident’s door to make sure everyone was out. The fire spread rapidly. By the time most residents realized what was going on, there was no time to lose.
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