Montgomery bill requiring smoke escape hoods in high-rise rentals heads to work session

By Everett Calloway

ROCKVILLE, Md. — A Montgomery County bill requiring smoke escape hoods in high-rise rental apartment buildings moves next to a Public Safety Committee work session. Fire officials and the family of a woman killed in a 2023 Silver Spring apartment fire are pressing for it, and some of the county’s largest landlords are pushing back.

Bill 43-26, introduced by Council member Kate Stewart in September, would require rental buildings of five stories or more to keep the hoods on site for firefighters to use during a fire. Under the bill, the minimum would be 5% of a building’s occupancy, and the director of the Department of Permitting Services could raise the requirement to as much as 10%, WUSA9 reported.

The council’s legislative record lists seven co-sponsors besides Stewart: Marilyn Balcombe, Natali Fani-Gonzalez, Sidney Katz, Dawn Luedtke, Kristin Mink, Laurie-Anne Sayles and Shebra Evans. That is a majority of the 11-member council. The record shows the bill expires Dec. 7, 2026, if not acted on.

“This bill ensures our Fire and Rescue personnel have the equipment they need to assist people in evacuating smoke-filled buildings during a fire,” Stewart said, according to WUSA9.

Origins in the Arrive fire

The hoods slip over a person’s head and supply about 15 minutes of filtered air, Assistant Chief Dominic Colletti of the Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service told the council at an Oct. 6 public hearing, WTOP reported.

Colletti said the department’s use of them began after the February 2023 fire at the Arrive Silver Spring apartments, in which 25-year-old Melanie Diaz died of smoke inhalation. A donation from her family let the department finish an initiative in January 2026 that put a hood on every front-line engine, ladder truck and heavy rescue squad, he said. Placing hoods in apartment buildings is “a vital next step,” Colletti said, according to WUSA9.

Members of the Diaz family testified in support. Fire officials found that the absence of working smoke alarms and the lack of a sprinkler system contributed to the extent of the Arrive fire, WUSA9 reported.

Landlords object to cost and logistics

Property owners and managers who testified praised the family’s advocacy but opposed the bill as written.

Charles Nulsen, owner of Washington Property Company, said the bill would put the responsibility in the wrong place and raise rents. “Requiring a 100,000 unit apartment community to purchase 10,000 masks at a cost of $3 million … is so poorly thought-out and not justifiable,” he said, according to WUSA9.

Gunnar Gingery of Commodore Management said there is a good idea at the heart of the bill but that staff should be helping residents evacuate, “not retrieving respiratory equipment or determining who needs it,” WTOP reported. “Firefighters arriving in an unfamiliar building should not have to locate a cabinet somewhere on the property before they can use a piece of emergency equipment,” he said.

Chris Bruch, president and CEO of the Donohoe Companies, made a similar point: “Hoods work best in the hands of firefighters.”

Gabrielle Duvall of Southern Management Companies argued that the bill covers only rental housing, leaving out high-rise condominiums, and does not reach hospitals, nursing homes or assisted living facilities. She urged the council to table it.

At the hearing, Cesar Diaz, Melanie Diaz’s father, held up a packaged hood and said one costs $350, WTOP reported. “This is not about money. This is about life,” he said.

Written testimony posted on the council’s bill page includes submissions from AARP Maryland, the Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce, the Apartment and Office Building Association of Metropolitan Washington and Greater Greater Washington, among others.

Next steps

Reports differ on the date of the committee work session. WUSA9 reported Nov. 2, and WTOP reported Nov. 9. The council’s legislative record lists the Oct. 6 public hearing as the bill’s latest action.

The Inquisitor is seeking comment from Stewart’s office, the Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service, the Department of Permitting Services, the Council’s Public Safety Committee and the Apartment and Office Building Association of Metropolitan Washington.