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While many families throughout Prince George's County awoke Christmas morning to a tall tree and presents, Suitland resident Kevin Frye found himself inside a Days Inn half a mile from his home.

Frye, 31, could not go back to his home immediately after a series of fires during the Christmas holiday week displaced him and many families in central and southern Prince George's County.

"I didn't get a chance to spend Christmas like I really want to, with my girlfriend and my daughter," Frye said.

About 80 firefighters and paramedics arrived at the first fire, which occurred before 2 p.m. Christmas Eve at the Courts of Camp Springs Apartments in the 6300 block of Maxwell Drive in Suitland. The fire began on the second floor of a three-story garden apartment building but eventually spread to the top floor, roof and a next-door building, a fire department release states.

An electrical malfunction related to wires running behind the apartment walls appears to be the cause, said Mark Brady, Prince George's County Fire/EMS Department spokesman, on Monday. Damage is estimated at $1 million, he said. There were 15 units damaged too severely for residents to inhabit, the release states. Brady said he did not receive a specific number from apartment management for how many adults and children were displaced.

No residents were injured in the blaze, but a 27-year-old firefighter from the Morningside Fire Department was taken to the Washington Hospital Center's Burn Unit after suffering first- and second-degree burns, the release states. He has since been treated and released, Brady said.

Displaced residents would be placed in vacant units, and a site manager at the apartment complex, Wayne Tyler, is surveying the damage with county fire officials, said Carol Chatham, a spokeswoman with the complex's management company, William C. Smith and Co., on Monday.

Frye's building, which was at the end of a row of buildings involved in the blaze, escaped fire damage. He said he got a call between 2 p.m. and 3 p.m. Christmas Eve from his mother and girlfriend that the apartment complex was on fire. Frye was still at work for MetroAccess, the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority's door-to-door transportation service.

Frye thanked the American Red Cross for putting him and other families displaced from the fire into a nearby Days Inn on Allentown Road, where he spent Christmas morning.

"I've always seen stuff like this on TV," Frye said. "I was just amazed and kind of hurt that this was happening to me."

An unattended candle appears to be the start of a blaze Saturday at a three-story apartment unit in Oxon Hill's Brookside Park Condominiums that displaced 23 families, a county fire department release states. About 60 firefighters fought the blaze, which was reported at approximately 5:45 p.m. at 538 Wilson Bridge Drive. The fire spread from the second floor to the top floor and roof and to another building, 540 Wilson Bridge Drive, before it was under control about 7:30 p.m., the release states.

No injuries were reported in the Oxon Hill fire, and the county fire/EMS department's Citizens Services Unit and the Red Cross gave the residents — 56 adults and 11 children — temporary shelter in local hotels, the release states. Damage is estimated at $1.5 million, Brady said.

Resident Woods Swinson, who lives in a unit at 542 Wilson Bridge Drive, was in his apartment at the time of the fire and remembers his girlfriend telling him she heard a woman screaming outside for help.

"She was just screaming and screaming and screaming," Swinson said. "The heat melted all the snow. I've never seen snow melt that fast."

Swinson began knocking on his neighbors' doors to alert them of the danger. The fire was inching its way toward his unit but was extinguished before it reached his building, he said.

"If it had been an extra five or 10 minutes, we would've been homeless," Swinson said.

There were also no injuries reported at a third blaze that same evening before 11 p.m. that displaced four adults and three children inside a Seat Pleasant home in the 400 block of Carmody Hills Drive, a fire department release states. The fire, which started in the second floor and attic, caused $50,000 in damage and was caused by an electrical malfunction, Brady said.

The county fire/EMS department's Citizen Services Unit and the Red Cross temporarily relocated the family to a hotel, the release states.

On Sunday, the county firefighters union issued a statement claiming cuts to fire/EMS staffing levels hampered crews responding to the weekend fires, leading to greater damage.

In the statement, the Prince George's County Professional Fire Fighters & Paramedics Association International Association of Fire Fighters Local 1619 said the organization "is extremely

concerned with the adverse impact that staffing reductions have on the citizens of the county

and our members. There is no temporary solution to this problem. Our elected officials must

make fire safety and fire department staffing a priority."

In an e-mail Monday to The Gazette, county fire/EMS department spokesman Mark Brady said all

fire/EMS stations were appropriately staffed throughout the weekend with the number of firefighters required.

"Handling the volume of calls for service that our department does on a daily basis will, at times, stretch our resources thin. Prince George's County Fire Chief Eugene A. Jones is working with the Local 1619 leadership to find a mutually agreeable way to conduct our day-to-day activities in the safest and most efficient way possible."