On Friday, March 9, at approximately 3:30 p.m., units were dispatched to reported house fire in the 500 block of Highland Street NW, in the Town of Vienna.
Units arrived on the scene of a two-story, single family home with smoke showing from the second floor. Firefighters quickly located and extinguished a fire in a bedroom on the second floor. There were no reported civilian or firefighter injuries.
Two adults and one child were home at the time of the fire. The fire was discovered by one of the occupants when he smelled smoke and saw flames in one of the bedrooms. Smoke alarms in the home sounded shortly after the fire was discovered. The homeowner attempted to extinguish the fire with a fire extinguisher then evacuated with the other occupants and called 9-1-1.
Fire Investigators determined that the fire started in a bedroom on the second floor. The cause of the fire is currently under investigation.
Five occupants were displaced as a result of the fire. Red Cross assistance was offered and accepted. Damages as a result of the fire are approximately $93,750 according to Fairfax County Fire & Rescue Department.
Vienna Police Department: April is Distracted Driving Awareness Month
Distracted Driving Awareness Month is April and the Vienna Police Department would like to remind drivers to refrain from distracted driving to help keep everyone safe on our neighborhood streets. Distracted driving is anything you do behind the wheel that takes your attention away from driving safely. Cell Phones are a top distraction because they are used with great frequency and for long periods of time. According to the National Safety Council (NSC), you are four times more likely to be involved in a crash if you are using a Cell Phone while driving. To put it in perspective, it takes about 5 seconds on average to read or send a text message. If you are traveling at 55 MPH, you would have traveled over 400 feet in 5 seconds, which is greater than the length of a football field. Now imagine driving that distance with your eyes closed! How dangerous are these distractions and what are your chances of causing a crash or injury? Texting: 8-23 X Talking on cell phone: 9 X Reaching for a moving object: 8.8 X Turning around in a seat: 8.8 X Reading: 3.4 X According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), there are an estimated 660,000 drivers daily who use their electronic devices while driving. In 2015 distracted driving claimed 3,477 lives and injured 391,000 people. Statistics from the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles' (DMV) Highway Safety Office show that in 2014, more than 24,000 crashes statewide were attributed to distracted drivers. These crashes resulted in 163 deaths and 14,378 injuries. The Vienna Police Department is asking drivers during April’s Distracted Driving Awareness Month to commit to changing their distracted driving behavior by putting their phones down and paying full time and attention to their driving. We would also like to remind drivers that if you are caught texting and driving or driving while distracted, you may be pulled over and ticketed because you could be endangering your life and the lives of those around you. So keep your head up and phone down! For more information visit http://www.nsc.org/learn/NSC-Initiatives/Pages/distracted-driving-awarenessmonth.aspx and https://www.nhtsa.gov/risky-driving/distracted-driving