GABLES UPPER ROCK APARTMENT FIRE A SETBACK FOR UPPER ROCK PHASE II (PHOTOS)

Yesterday morning's devastating fire destroyed many apartments in the Gables Upper Rock apartment complex off I-270 and Shady Grove Road. Fortunately, the fire was within an unoccupied part of the complex, which had been expected to open for leasing soon. Instead, crews are turning to a demolition and debris-removal operation today. Equipment was moving into place last evening for that purpose. I'm curious if the sprinkler systems were active at this point in the construction; we're often told by developers that less firefighting resources are needed even as development grows, due to modern sprinkler systems.

Montgomery County firefighters, and at least 4 firetrucks, remained on scene late last night, to inspect and extinguish any remaining hotspots in the wreckage.

MCFRS public information officer Pete Piringer tweeted the following photos of the scene; you can see some of the heavy equipment moving into place for today's operations:

DUBALL ROCKVILLE TOWN CENTER CONSTRUCTION UPDATE (PHOTOS)

Here is the latest construction progress on the first Duball tower at Rockville Town Center. As you can see, building has well passed street level at this point.

This tower will contain luxury apartments, and a 140-room Cambria Suites hotel.

Meanwhile, developer Duball, LLC has submitted an application to the Rockville planning department asking permission to increase the number of apartments in the future second tower from 222 to 400. This will be achieved by simply making the apartments smaller, which Duball claims is better suited to today's market.

Aside from changing the potential number of residents and vehicles at the site, it would also bring the total number of residential units to 663. Add in at least 140 hotel guests, many with rental cars, to the equation as well.

The matter is scheduled to come before the Rockville Planning Commission at its November 13 meeting, at 7:00 PM at City Hall (and broadcast live on Channel 11).