Dale City home ablaze once again

By Elisa Glushefski

Published: May 28, 2008

Fire struck a Dale City home Tuesday evening for a second time in less than two weeks.

A blaze that started around 6 p.m. caused severe damage to a single-family house at 4512 Kingston Road and it's possible that a 911 caller reporting the fire was on hold for several minutes due to a system glitch, said Prince William Fire and Rescue spokesman Randy Earl.

Firefighters knocked down the fire within about 20 minutes, said Assistant Chief Brett Bowman, who expected it would take another two hours to have all the hot spots extinguished.

The cause and origin of the fire are still under investigation, but one official estimated between 40 and 50 percent of the house sustained burn damage, with other parts of the house sustaining smoke and water damage. No injuries were reported.

Jennifer Meyer, who lives across the street, said she was on hold for several minutes after dialing 911.

In that time, Meyer said, what appeared to be a small fire in one of the bedrooms escalated into 15- to 20-foot-tall flames that engulfed the roof of the house.

"Here we live 90 seconds from a fire station, but if you can't get through, what good does it do?" Meyer said.

Randy Earl, a spokesman for the fire department, said the communication center's main call system under-went scheduled maintenance Wednesday and was switched to a backup system during that time.

Once Verizon workers were finished, the system was returned to normal.

Although he could not confirm it, Earl said those glitches could mean that Meyer's call stayed in the 911 queue for several minutes before being answered.

Capt. Tim Taylor of the Fire Marshal's Office confirmed that there was a fire at the residence last week, but he did not know all the details at press time.

Part of the investigation, he said, will be to pull records to determine if there were any other fires at the house.

Fire department officials are also looking into alleged threats made against the family who live at the house.

Family members did not want to comment for the story.

The Prince William County American Red Cross was at the scene to assist.

Staff writer Elisa Glushefski can be reached at 703-878-8062.