Fire at Sumner Lake Community
Smoke is billowing from the fire at Sumner Lake. Sumner Lake is a fairly new community on the site of Selwyn Smith’s farm, nestled in between Point of Woods single family homes, Plantation Lane and upper Westgate. The Manassas News & Messenger reports that as many as 8 houses are on fire. It is a three alarm fire.
Traffic is horrible around Manassas because of rubber neckers and fire and rescue vehicles on the move. We can only hope that there were no injuries. The fact that this fire has involved multiple homes is no surprise. Some of those houses don’t have 15 feet between them. Everyone lives in the shadow of someone else. When houses are that close, you might as well live in a townhouse row. Actually, they are probably safer. There are firewalls.
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These houses are dangerously close to one another. You can still smell it in the air in WestGate. I hope everyone is safe. I did hear one person went to the hospital with a burn on the hand.
Those three houses are just gutted.
dude thats my neighborhood
Sure about that slow. Some were missing the roof and the siding of the entire top floor with the frame work with flames on it. That sounds like little more than gutted to me. But what do I know.
Other houses have moderate burn damage.
I don’t know how you would contain a fire over there to just one house. They are dangerously close together. What were they thinking!
There are now pictures posted on insidenova.
http://www2.insidenova.com/multimedia/
Slow, look at picture #17, at tell me you call that gutted. I call that a total loss.
I know conditions are dry but I thought the same thing , Moon, about probably safer in a townhome with a fire wall. The movie Backdraft comes to mind…..they say wind was a factor but it wasn’t that windy….SCARY! Glad it was a minor injury, it could have been a lot worse. Still smell the fire
Hi REd Dawn. I know Ms. Lafayette was worried it was over in your neck of the woods at first. She was coming from SJHS.
I guess you will be smelling it for days, you are that close.
So sorry to hear this – I’m in Roanoke for the Virginia State Neighborhood Conference and my son sent me a text that he could see the smoke from the NOVA-Manassas campus. Many of these folks are active, involved residents who care about their neighborhood. My prayers go out to all of them.
And extremely good friend of mine lived in one of the houses that the fire spread to. It’s literally rubble. She and her family lost everything, including a good number of pets. All I can say is, I’m heartbroken for her, her family, and the other families that suffered a loss today, and I’m thankful the fire didn’t spread any further. I just cannot get over this.
kvn, thanks for logging on. That is a horrible think and the thought that pets died just maks me sick.
Where do people even start trying to reconstruct their lives?
FYI: A press conference has been called by the Manassas Fire Marshal and the ATF
to be held at the Sumner Lake Community Center – 5PM today. They
apparently have discovered the cause of the fire.
Thanks, Big Dog!! I hope a local channel will be airing this press conference.
So what is the verdict? I tried local news but too many football games. I sure hope we don’t have an arsonist on the loose.
Insidenova.com says that it was started by cigarettes put on in potting soil.
M-H, you are right – a lit cigarette placed in a plant’s potting soil on a
back deck and left. Many types of “potting soil” will combust when
placed directly next to a burning object.
Recent fires have shown us the danger small items – a candle, a cigarette-
can turn into be when not handled correctly.
M-H, you are right – a lit cigarette placed in a plant’s potting soil on a
back deck and left. Many types of “potting soil” will combust when
placed directly next to a burning object.
Recent fires have shown us the danger small items – a candle, a cigarette-
can turn into be when not handled correctly.