Morning Notes
Maryland House Passes Gun Control Bill — The State Senate is expected to follow, giving Maryland perhaps the most sweeping gun control legislation in the wave of proposals being considered around the nation after the Newtown elementary school massacre. [Washington Post]
Choice Hotels Opening New Headquarters In Rockville — The international hotel chain is celebrating its move from Silver Spring to Rockville Town Center with tours of its new 190,000-square-foot headquarters. Choice says the move is helping to make the region the center of the hotel industry. Marriott is headquartered in Bethesda.
Walt Whitman Student Gets Spot On U.S. Maccabi Team — Josh Fried, a 17-year-old who plays center for the Vikings, was selected as part of the Junior U.S. Maccabi basketball team. He’ll play for the team when it travels to Israel in July for the Maccabiah games. [The Gazette]
Submit Your Photos On Flickr — Submit your photos of Bethesda, Chevy Chase and North Bethesda to our BethesdaNow.com Flickr pool. We regularly feature Flickr photos in the “Morning Notes” and other stories from around the area. [Flickr]
Flickr photo by thisisbossi
Neighbor Helped Save Two Teens From Potomac Fire
Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Services said an alert neighbor walking her dog on Monday banged on the front door of a Potomac home just in time to alert two teenagers inside to the flames engulfing the back of the home.
Firefighters were dispatched to the 12400 block of Willow Green Court in Potomac just after 4 p.m. on Monday and found a heavy fire that has left the two teenagers and two others displaced.
The neighbor smelled smoke and found flames in the back of the house, called 911, tied her dog to a nearby mailbox, ran back to the home and pounded on the front door to alert any occupants, according to a MCFRS press release. The teens inside narrowly escaped the fire, MCFRS said, and officials are crediting her with helping them escape safely.
MCFRS investigators determined the fire was accidental and was sparked by cooking materials that had been placed outside to cool. Because of the more than $600,000 in damage to the home, investigators were unable to determine if the home had smoke alarms.
One firefighter suffered non-life threatening injuries at the scene and has been released. About 80 fire rescue personnel responded to the scene, as did the American Red Cross to assist the displaced family.
Photos via Rockville Volunteer Fire Department
Heavy Fire In Rockville Home
Firefighters are putting out a heavy fire in a home in the 12400 block of Willow Green Court near Falls Chapel Way, according to scanner traffic.
The fire burned through the back of the house and the garage. Police are blocking off access to Copenhaver Drive at the intersection of Falls Chapel Way.
For Photography School, A Bittersweet Farewell
The Washington School of Photography has been in Bethesda since 1976, steadily growing in size and reach and surviving a major technological shift that changed the industry forever.
But in December, the school on Rugby Avenue will move from Bethesda for at least the next decade. Development of an apartment complex on the site is imminent. The crane already looms over the administrative staff’s offices. And they say it’s time to move on up Rockville Pike, out of their hometown of almost 40 years.
“There’s a cost involved. There’s an inconvenience,” said WSP Executive Director Missy Loewe. “Whether we feel happy about it or sad, it’s happening so we may as well be happy about it.”
Unlike some forced out by the wave of apartment development hitting Bethesda, Loewe and WSP will survive (and perhaps even benefit) from the move to an industrial area of Wilkins Lane near the Twinbrook Metro station in Rockville.
They provide a unique service: Living Social-friendly beginner photography workshops, specialized courses in shooting weddings, fashion, food or a well-recognized year-long intensive course that produces many of the area’s professional event photographers.
The new space will have 15,000 square feet, triple the size of the 5,000-square-foot space on two floors of Rugby Avenue.
Update On Woodmont Triangle’s Foong Lin
Fu Cheung is still looking for a new location for his Foong Lin Chinese restaurant, even as he handled a heavy lunch rush and greeted some other nearby restaurant workers who came to say goodbye.
Tonight will be his last under the familiar green awning at the corner of Norfolk and Fairmont Avenues.
Foong Lin and the others will be shuttered to make way for a new 17-story apartment building.
A sign outside thanked customers “for 25 wonderful years.”
Cheung hopes it can be more than 25, but it might not come in Bethesda. He’s looking at a spot in the Woodmont Triangle area, but if that doesn’t work out, he said he’s likely headed up the road to Rockville.
