A Tale of Two Fires or a Roof and Contents
Click on picture to see raw video of Seaton Court fire in Leesburg, VA.
First fire, on Cherry Lane. Picture from Leesburgfire.org.
In the first fire, the home is still standing. The second home is a pile of charred wood. Loudoun County Chief Fire Marshal Keith Brower believes one of the key reasons there was such a different outcome is that the second fire involved a newer home of lightweight construction. Not only was the house where the fire began destroyed, but 4 nearby homes had $60,000 worth of vinyl siding damage. One of the homes was as much as 150 feet away.
Clearly this isn’t a scientific way of comparing new construction with old construction. It is just an illustration of the dilemma firefighters face each day. Brower talks about the whole timeline being compressed, with fires spreading more quickly and collapses happening earlier when lightweight construction is involved. It is why some Virginia firefighters have been referring to fires in these type of homes as, “A roof and contents”.
Obviously this is nothing new for firefighters. Keith Brower was helping me try to illustrate this story for the general public. You can see our efforts here.
While it may not have helped in this case, because the fire appears to have started outside the home, Brower believes lightweight construction is as good a reason as any for residential sprinklers.
In 1985, not too far from where this second fire occurred, Keith and his colleagues gave me a close up demonstration of a residential sprinkler system. I used it as part of a special report I was working on called “Get Out Alive”. Now, a dozen years later, Keith is one of those still trying to make residential sprinklers a reality in Virginia.
