House Fire In Loudoun Injures Six Firefighters

After smelling smoke and hearing a commotion, she said, she looked out to see "flames coming out the rooftop."

Then, she said, "the roof was just totally on fire. Flames were coming out of the windows, billowing out and up on the roof."

"There was black smoke everywhere," said another neighbor, Vera Stewart.

Nearby resident John Steedman said that when he became aware of the fire, a rear sunroom, a back deck and a rear fireplace were "almost engulfed in flame."

He said tongues of flame "were starting to lick out of the house and up onto the second story roof."

"The whole roof was in flames" within minutes, he said.

As firefighters arrived, Steedman said, some forced open the front door, while others set up a hose line to fight the blaze from the rear where the flames appeared to be most intense.

Roland Smith, head of the community association in the 1,491-house development on the eastern edge of Leesburg, praised the efforts of firefighters.

Firefighters who responded also came from Hamilton, Leesburg, Sterling, Lucketts and Fairfax County, Maguire said.

Neighbors described the house as about 10 years old with a brick front, peaked roof surfaced with asphalt shingles, and vinyl siding.

Heat from the flames was intense enough to melt siding on adjacent houses on the two-block street, which has a cul-de-sac at either end and an intersection in the middle.

It appeared that no one was at the house when the fire broke out. Stumm said the woman who lives there had gone to Leesburg with her mother to buy plants.

When the woman returned, Stumm said, the neighborhood had been closed off by authorities.

"That's how she found out," Stumm said.

Stumm said the woman kept three cats who habitually remained indoors. All apparently fled the fire, she said, and neighbors were searching for them yesterday evening.

She said the woman works in accounting and was planning to spend the night with her mother, who lives in Leesburg.

She said the woman was able to retrieve papers from a severely burned automobile in the carport of the house.