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At 12.12 p.m. on June 9, the Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department dispatched units to a reported townhouse fire in the 400 block of Council Drive, NE, in Vienna.
Units arrived at the scene of a two-story townhouse with a medium-sized unit with smoke emanating from the roof. The emergency services located and quickly put out a fire in a bedroom on the second floor. No injuries to civilians or firefighters were reported.
At the time of the fire, two residents were at home. A plumber who was sweating pipe in a bathroom on the second floor walked over to his truck parked outside and heard the smoke alarm when he re-entered the house.
On further examination, he observed smoke from the area where he was sweating his pipe. The worker and one of the residents called 911 and they all evacuated the house.
Fire investigators determined that the fire was accidental and broke out in the wall between the bedroom closet and the bathroom on the second floor. The cause of the fire was an open flame device (the plumber’s blowtorch) that ignited flammable materials nearby.
The fire displaced two inmates who refused to help the Red Cross. The fire caused property damage of around $ 148,750, officials said.