Baltimore, Maryland -- Howard County Fire Department personnel were dispatched to respond to a 5-alarm blaze which reportedly gutted the main industrial complex of Orion Pharmaceuticals at a rural location off Route 318 near Jessup. Authorities were unable to respond to the scene in as timely a manner as they would have wished, since the phone and internet lines to Orion were blown out early in or directly prior to the fire, which was most certainly not an Act of God.

 

Investigators say that the entire complex has been demolished, including basements and outbuildings, and a strange swath was cut through the woods by something about the size of a dumptruck, though there are no tire tracks, and the path abruptly ends with no sign of the machine that made it. It is difficult to determine whether the blaze was chemical in nature, as the facility contained such a large amount of varied chemicals within that isolating the start of the fire has been impossible. It is thought that the fire was set by outsiders rather than an industrial accident, as the complex was strategically isolated both in communications and in transportation (the roads having been knocked out somehow). There have been suggestions that this was terrorist activity, but the complex is not a government contractor nor near enough to Washington to be of much strategic use in that regard.

 

Spokespersons for Orion withheld comment, and the investigation was processed in record time, allowing the company to begin rebuilding and recouping its losses. Orion is a privately-held corporation.

 

Incidentally, this is the same rural area near several local farms which have reported a series of bizarre incidents in recent weeks, including claims of rape, torture and violent vandalism by ghosts, aliens or spirits of some sort. Also in the days following the fire, several local residents have made persistent reports of having seen some kind of large creature or monster roaming the woods, and one farmer reported experiencing a sudden bout of cattle mutilations at the same time.