Two Boys Charged In Blazes At 3 Houses

Two 13-year-old boys were charged yesterday in three fires that broke out within a block of one another in a Loudoun County neighborhood Tuesday night, causing more than $500,000 damage and displacing two families, fire officials said.

No one was injured.

About 7 p.m., neighbors said, they noticed smoke coming from the garage of a house at 10313 Yorktown Ct. Two teenage girls, who were walking by, ran to the house and banged on the front door, alerting the family inside.

Within minutes, the flames spread to a car in the driveway, then the garage of the house next door, at 10311, according to John Campbell, 35, who lives across the street. The residents were not home.

"It spread so quick," Campbell said. "At first it was just puffs of smoke up there. We even considered grabbing garden hoses."

Around the corner at 10153 Yorktown Way, investigators found burned materials outside the house, which is vacant and for rent. There was no structural damage, fire officials said.

In the garage fires, one of the teenagers was charged with breaking and entering and burning a dwelling, fire officials said. One boy was charged with breaking and entering the third house, and carelessly damaging property by fire there, officials said. The other boy was charged with breaking and entering that house.

Both boys were being held yesterday at the juvenile detention center in Leesburg. Fire officials did not identify them because of their age. They also did not say how the fires were started or reveal a motive. The houses are in the Great Falls neighborhood of Loudoun.

Construction and cleanup crews spent yesterday patching up extensive damage to the houses on Yorktown Court. By the time firefighters arrived, both garages were engulfed in flames, said Mary Maguire, Loudoun County Fire and Rescue spokeswoman. An investigation led fire officials to the house on Yorktown Way, she said.

Neighbors were stunned to learn that authorities believed children were to blame. The cul-de-sac is always full of youngsters playing basketball or riding bikes after school, they said. The families living in the damaged houses were described as among the friendliest.

"I thought the whole point of Loudoun County was it was safe, and this kind of thing doesn't happen here," said Belle Phillip, 22, who lives several doors away. "Now you hear kids are burning down houses?"

Sheila Montalvan, 46, said she was having dinner with her husband when they heard an explosion next door. They went outside and saw flames shooting up. She said they felt their sense of safety shattered. "I'm never going to be the same," Montalvan said. "How can I go on vacation when something like this could happen?"

Meggan Huff, 13, one of the girls walking by, said she noticed some white smoke quickly turn into billows of black smoke and then flames. That's when she banged on the door and told the woman who answered that her house was on fire.

"They had no idea," Meggan said.

The woman ran in and brought her family outside. By then, neighbors had gathered, someone had already called 911 and firetrucks were on their way.

"It was really scary to be watching all of this," Meggan said. "It's really shocking to think that someone my age would go around setting houses on fire."