Local animal rescue nonprofit Coffee and Paws Rescue Inc. will be collecting donations Sunday at Falling Branch Brewery for a Bel Air homeowner who lost two dogs in a Wednesday night house fire caused by a work truck that crashed into the home’s gas meter.

In a Facebook post Friday, Coffee and Paws said they will be at Falling Branch Brewery on Sunday from noon to 4 p.m. for the event, Beer & Barkpaolooza, to collect donations.

“This is a definite ‘no amount is too small’ situation,” read the post.

Coffee and Paws will be joined by one of the neighbors of the Woodhome neighborhood where the fire occurred, as well as the animal rescue The Hero Rescue, to collect donations on behalf of the neighborhood’s donation campaign.

The fire occurred around 8 p.m. Wednesday night in the 1700 block of Woodhome Drive in Bel Air after the Maryland State Fire Marshal said, for unknown reasons, a vehicle left the neighborhood roadway and struck the gas meter on a home — leading to the vehicle’s engine igniting the gas and causing a gas fire to spread to the home.

Coffee and Paws said in their post that the owner of the home is a night nurse at the Greater Baltimore Medical Center and that she was not home during the incident. However, her two dogs were.

According to the fire marshal’s report on the fire, no human injuries occurred but one of the two dogs was killed in the fire and the other was taken for treatment by a neighbor, where it later succumbed to its injuries.

“This woman, who is in a job to help people, lost not only her home and all her belongings, but both of her dogs,” read the post from Coffee and Paws. “I cannot imagine the pain she is going through, and it brings me to tears to think about it.”

Following the crash, the driver of the Town Group security systems, fire alarms, sprinkler maintenance and locksmith services company vehicle that hit the home fled the scene.

Police identified the driver as 27-year-old Joseph Pollard after he turned himself in the following morning.

Pollard was given five traffic citations including reckless driving, negligent driving, failure to give insurance information, failure to obey traffic control devices and failure to control the vehicle to avoid collision, according to Maryland Case Search.

In a statement Thursday, Town Group said Pollard, an employee of the family-owned company, was hospitalized by the incident and that the crash occurred while he was headed home from work.

“As a family-owned business in this community for over 27 years, we’ve always cared deeply about our neighbors, and an incident like this has truly shaken us,” the statement read. “We’ve never experienced anything like this and are doing everything we can to support everyone involved.”

The statement did not say if Pollard is still employed with the company, but it did say that the company will be working with law enforcement and fire officials as they continue their investigation.

Have a news tip? Contact Matt Hubbard at mhubbard@chespub.com, 443-651-0101 or @mthubb on X.