Fire

Fire

From Page A1

What Settle learned when she opened her bedroom door to a smoky hallway was that the heat from the fire was blasting out the windows of the house.

“I opened the door and heard glass breaking out of the windows,” she said. “I went in and woke Miranda up and helped her out. I tried to go back in to get the dogs and cats. They were her children.”

The fire not only prevented Settle from going back in, but also firefighters who tried to save all of Plotnick’s pets.

One of Plotnick’s two dogs was saved; the other died from smoke inhalation. One of her cats also died; the other is missing.

Fire chief Ann Spieker said she did not hear any smoke detectors going off when she arrived on the scene but saw one on the ground without a battery. At some point after she moved in, “the renter had taken hers down because it had been beeping and needed a new battery,” said Spieker.

Dispatcher Sheila M. Scott at the Rappahannock County Sheriff’s Office took the call when it came into the dispatch center at 5:59 a.m. The Washington Volunteer Fire & Rescue Company was on the road by 6:06 a.m. and first on the scene four minutes later at 6:10 a.m. Ultimately, there were 10 fire equipment vehicles at the scene and one ambulance.

“It was labor intensive for a smaller crew than normal,” said Spieker, a smudge of ashes on her nose, surveying the damage at Plotnick’s home. “Half of the firefighters in the county went to the graduation.”

Spieker stayed at Plotnick’s house until 5 p.m. Saturday, constantly checking to be sure the fire didn’t rekindle. *

Cause of fire

Fire chief Spieker said she suspects an electrical surge triggered the fire.

“The neighborhood lost power at 2:30 a.m. and it came back on later,” she said. “Maybe a power surge arched—it could have triggered a spark.”

From her investigation, the fire started on the porch and went into the attic which was filled with furniture and magazines, said Spieker. “The porch and the kitchen areas were the most burned.”