Looking at the two-story, brick, single-family home in Centreville’s Fair Crest subdivision, one might think it’s as sturdy and strong as the others in the neighborhood. But the boarded-up windows and blackened interior tell another story.
A FIRE LAST Monday afternoon, March 12, caused an estimated $450,000 damage, according to the Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department, and displaced a family of four. And whether this house will be allowed to remain standing has still not been determined.
“The fire started in the basement, but all three floors are destroyed,” said Shawn O’Connor, project manager with Coastal Restoration in Chantilly. He’s part of an eight-person crew that’s been working on the house on Sweet Woodruff Way in the aftermath of the blaze.
The workmen boarded up the blown-out windows Monday night and returned Tuesday to meet with several people. “We dealt with the renters, the homeowners, the insurance adjusters and the fire marshal,” said O’Connor. “They were trying to see what they could save. It’s pretty bad in there.”
On Wednesday, Coastal Restoration had a meeting with a large-loss insurance adjuster. “We’re arguing to have the house knocked down and started over,” said O’Connor. “A lot of times, it’s more work and more money to rebuild. There’s so much damage that it may not be architecturally sound.”
The work the men did there last Thursday, March 15, underscored his words. “Today, we’re actually lifting up the basement floor,” he said. “There’s a grand piano in the living room in danger of falling through to the basement. The only thing holding it up is the hardwood floor. The supporting floor system in the basement is burned through – it’s gone. So we’re jacking up the basement floor and putting in a support system.”
O’Connor said a special engineer would visit the house early this week to look at the concrete walls and supporting I-beams to decide if the structure is salvageable. Fire officials said the fire was accidental, caused by an “electrical anomaly” near a portable sauna in the basement.
Lalit Marwaha, who lives across the street, was home at the time. “We heard the fire trucks and saw very bad smoke coming out of the front of the house,” he said. “The garage door was open. It was a huge fire over there. I was worried about the other houses next to it.”
HE SAID a neighbor saw smoke coming out of a side window and alerted the home’s occupants, who were able to escape safely. And now, concerned about his own home, Marwaha said he may ask someone to check out its electricity “to make sure it’s OK.”
Ai Vo, who lives next door to the house that burned, said having such a terrible thing happen so close by was “scary.” He said the flames were out by the time he got home from work, but he now plans on buying a fire extinguisher.
Another neighbor across the street, Kristine Lee, was out of town when the fire began, but said her husband called and told her about the blaze. Initially, she said, all he knew was that someone’s house on their street had burned, but he didn’t know whose. Said Lee: “Because they’d blocked off the street with yellow tape, he couldn’t get in here after work, and he was worried it was our house.”
A neighbor at the corner also had trouble returning home for the same reason. And she was troubled because of the fire’s cause. Said the woman: “It doesn’t make me feel good – especially since it was an electrical problem.”
Another woman, who declined to give her name, was visiting friends in the neighborhood when the fire broke out. “The fire sirens caught my attention and I went outside,” she said. “I saw a lot of thick, heavy smoke – first, yellow, and then it turned to black. I wasn’t afraid because I saw so many fire-and-rescue trucks arrive, and I didn’t see any fire, so I thought we’d be OK. I was just concerned for the people in the house.”