FCFRD News Blog : Electrical Event Cause Of Herndon Apartment Fire

Mount Vernon VA

03 December, 2021

11:19 AM

Description

Press release from the FCFRD News Blog: December 3, 2021 On Thursday, December 2, at approximately 5:34 p.m., units from Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department, Loudoun County Fire and Rescue Department, and the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority Fire and Rescue Department responded to a reported apartment fire in the 800 block of Park Avenue in the Town of Herndon. While enroute to the location, crews were advised there was a report of fire in a second-floor apartment with occupants jumping out of third floor windows. Based on that information, a second alarm was immediately requested. Units arrived on the scene of a three-story, garden style apartment with fire showing on the second floor and the stairwell filled with smoke. Crews immediately began to assist residents from the building and work to extinguish the fire. Prior to arrival occupants of one apartment, a mother and three young children, self-evacuated by tying sheets together and climbing down the improvised rope to safety. One crew rescued three residents via ladder. Nine residents were transported to the hospital. Two of the nine sustained life-threatening injuries. There were no firefighter injuries reported. There were four occupants present in the apartment of origin at the time of the fire. Upon discovering the fire, they self-evacuated. Another resident in the building observed smoke coming from the apartment and called 9-1-1. There were no working smoke alarms in the apartment where the fire started. Fire Investigators determined that the fire was accidental in nature and started in the bedroom of an apartment. The cause of the fire was an electrical event involving a charging cable. Eleven apartments were determined to be uninhabitable, and 44 residents were displaced because of the fire. Red Cross was on scene assisting the displaced resident. Damages as a result of the fire were approximately $287,500. This press release was produced by the FCFRD News Blog. The views expressed here are the author's own.