Fire destroys Deltaville house
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| Firefighters hose down smoldering debris about 2 hours after the blaze started. |
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| Whit Walden checks for hot spots. About 3.5 hours after the fire started, firefighters were recalled to the scene to extinguish flare ups. |
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by Tom Chillemi
A Virginia State Police arson investigator is working to determine the cause of a fire that destroyed a single-story house at 56 Buck’s View Lane in Deltaville on Thursday, April 30.
Deltaville firefighters Whit Walden and Kendall Vaughan were among those first at the inferno that had been reported by a passerby at 12:07 p.m.
Walden said he broke in the front door and was met with blinding smoke and intense heat that cracked his goggles’ lens. “Flames were rolling over our heads,” he said.
The fire had spread through the entire house and was even under it, said Walden. Walden said he and Vaughan had started inching down the hall towards the bedrooms, but when the floor started caving in they backed out and went to another area.
Firemen had to break holes in the foundation so they could quench the flames under the house.
Since no one was home when the fire started, the arson investigator was called in, said John Robins, assistant chief of the Lower Middlesex Volunteer Fire Department. No one had been in the rental home since early morning, he said.
Urbanna firefighters assisted and the Deltaville Rescue Squad responded.
