Pre-dawn fire that ‘lit up the sky’ destroys home near Little Washington; ‘It’s a huge loss,’ but nobody was hurt
By James P. Gannon
An early morning fire completely destroyed an unoccupied mountainside home above Harris Hollow near Washington, VA Friday, lighting up the predawn sky brightly.
The weekend home of Lynne and Joseph Horning, who were sleeping at their Washington, DC, residence when the Rappahannock County blaze broke out, was gutted. “It’s a total loss,” said Richie Burke, chief of the Sperryville Volunteer Fire Department and the county’s 911 co-ordinator, told The Rappahannock Voice.
Units from the Sperryville, Washington and Flint Hill volunteer fire departments responded to the fire, but the house was too far gone by the time they arrived on the scene, Burke said. “There was not much you could do except keep it from burning into the woods,” around the house, he added.
Burke said two hunters out before dawn called in to report the fire before 6 a.m. The blaze “lit up the sky” so brightly that the hunters, travelling on Route 211, saw the fire on the mountainside and called in to report it.
The home, which formerly belonged to the late John Sawhill, chairman of The Nature Conservancy, is located on Poplar Ridge Lane off Rt. 624, Sunnyside Orchard Road, about two miles north of Little Washington.
At mid-day Friday, firefighters continued to douse smoldering embers as Lynne Horning observed the site with family members and others. “It’s a huge loss,” she commented, but said she was grateful that nobody was hurt in the blaze.
“There were no people inside. We were very lucky,” she said, appearing more grateful than upset. “The view and the woods are still here, and we will rebuild,” she added. “Our lives have been blessed in many ways.”
Billows of gray smoke continued rising from the charred beams and burning remains of the house at mid-day. Only a small portion of the garage remained standing. Twisted sheets of metal roofing covered burning debris that had fallen into the basement of the structure as a volunteer with a fire hose continued damping the smoldering wreckage.
Horning said she and her husband were asleep in their D.C. home when the phone rang about 5:40 a.m. “Your house is burning down,” the caller, a friend, informed her.
She said the cause of the fire is unknown, “probably some electrical thing,” she speculated.
-- James P. GannonComments
Comment from AC9725
Time: November 30, 2007, 4:30 pm
Fire/rescue units and personnel from Amissville and Castleton also responded to the fire and assisted with containment and extinguishment.
–Art Candenquist
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