ANNAPOLIS, Md., Jan. 19 (UPI) -- A high-tech executive, his wife and four children remained missing Tuesday after an early morning fire destroyed their waterfront mansion in Maryland.
The 16,000-square-foot home south of Annapolis burned early Monday. Fire officials said Tuesday that two adults and four children appeared to have been in the house at the time.
The victims were identified as Don and Sandra Pyle and Wes, Charlotte, Katie and Lexi Boone in a letter from Douglas Lagarde, headmaster of the Severn School, the Capital Gazette of Annapolis reported.
Fire officials have said the investigation could take days because the mansion was so heavily damaged.
Donald and Sandra Pyle had not been found late Monday afternoon, Capt. Russ Davies of the Anne Arundel County Fire Department said.
The fire in the 16,000-square-foot mansion near Annapolis was reported at about 3:30 a.m. By the time the four-alarm blaze was under control at about 7 a.m., the house had been gutted.
Donald Pyle is the chief operating officer of ScienceLogic, a cybersecurity firm headquartered in Reston, Va. The family bought the house in 2005.
Davies said there was no evidence the fire was deliberately set.
The search for possible victims of the fire was suspended late Monday while the county department waited for special equipment needed to lift collapsed steel bars out of the mansion's basement, Davies said. He said the equipment, coming from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives national response team might not be at the scene until Wednesday.
"If you look at the damage, you know, it would not be a stretch to think that if there were occupants that they did not survive the fire," Davies said.
Firefighters were handicapped by a lack of hydrants in the upscale neighborhood. Tanker trucks and a fire boat were used with other county departments helping out with equipment and firefighters.
