WINCHESTER, Virginia —
The cause of a July 10 fire that destroyed a home and detached garage at 141 Gemstone Drive in Frederick County remains under investigation, but it is believed to be accidental.
“At this point in my investigation, there’s nothing to indicate it was suspicious in nature.” William E. Pifer III, a Frederick County Fire and Rescue assistant fire marshal, said on Tuesday.
No one was hurt in the fire, which was reported at 2:50 p.m. The property is off Front Royal Pike (U.S. 522) near Horton’s Nursery south of Winchester.
Frederick County Fire Chief Dennis Linaburg said in an email that when firefighters arrived at 3:01 p.m., the home was engulfed in flames, which then spread to the garage. The structures were destroyed in about 45 minutes.
A lack of fire hydrants in the area, a common problem in rural areas of the county, delayed fighting the fire. Water had to be transported via pumper trucks, and a 2,500-gallon water tank was set up to draw water from.
Linaburg said he didn’t have a time when water was first sprayed on the fire because it wasn’t documented through the county’s Computer Aided Dispatch system or anywhere else. Linaburg said he was investigating if there were water pressure problems with hoses that may have further delayed extinguishment.
Linaburg didn’t say where in the house the fire began. Homeowner Richard E. Ritter Sr. and his wife weren’t home when the fire ignited.
Pifer said the investigation includes checking whether work done by C.W. Wright Construction Co., a contractor for the Rappahannock Electric Cooperative, may have caused the fire. The contractor was replacing electrical lines on Front Royal Pike roughly 100 yards from the home when the fire erupted.
Pifer couldn’t estimate when the investigation will be done. “There’s really no time limit for how quickly an investigation is going to occur,” he said.
Winchester police Lt. Amanda Behan, Ritter’s daughter, said her father and his wife will soon be moving into a temporary home. Ritter’s insurance company is paying the costs. Behan said the loss of the home has been traumatic, but her father will bounce back.
“My dad is a very strong person,” she said. “We’ll get through it.”
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WINCHESTER, VA — A massive fire Tuesday afternoon quickly obliterated a single-family home and detached garage in Frederick County.
The fire at 141 Gemstone Drive, located off Front Royal Pike (U.S. 522) near Horton’s Nursery south of Winchester, started shortly after 3 p.m. and laid waste to the structures in less than 45 minutes.
The property is owned by Richard E. Ritter Sr., who was out of town Tuesday afternoon and learned about the fire from a neighbor.
A thick column of black smoke rising from the flames could be seen from miles away.
Fire officials and family members said no people or pets were in the house, but two cows on Ritter’s 6-acre farm were missing. Frederick County Sheriff’s Office deputies were searching for the wayward livestock as firefighters from Winchester and Frederick, Clarke and Warren counties worked to contain the blaze.
At 3:30 p.m., emergency personnel were forced to back away from the burning garage due to a series of small explosions.
Ritter’s daughter, Lt. Amanda Behan of the Winchester Police Department, said her father builds go-kart engines and stores fuel in the garage.
“He doesn’t deserve this,” Behan said through tears as she watched the structures burn.
Eric Corbin, of Keyser, W.Va., an employee of C.W. Wright Construction Co., was doing work on electrical lines along Front Royal Pike when he saw smoke from Ritter’s property shortly after 3 p.m. Tuesday.
“We came up and knocked on the doors to make sure no one was home,” Corbin said.
By then, firefighters had already been dispatched to the scene.
Since there are no fire hydrants to serve Ritter’s property, water had to be hauled to the site. Front Royal Pike was shut down near Gemstone Drive so tanker trucks from numerous fire companies could dump water into a temporary 2,500-gallon holding tank that had been placed next to the highway.
Fire hoses stretched from the holding tank down Gemstone Drive and up the driveway to Ritter’s house and garage.
Each time the tank was depleted, another truck would pull forward to fill it back up.
The empty tankers then drove to a hydrant on Rainville Road, about a quarter-mile away, to get another load of water before returning to the scene.
Hillary Niemeier, whose husband is a volunteer firefighter, said she came to Gemstone Drive shortly after the fire began.
“When we first got here, it was just the front of the house with some heavy black smoke,” Niemeier said. “They had to wait for the water to get here, so it just started to grow and grow. It started at the house and spread to the detached garage.”
A pickup truck parked inside the garage was destroyed.
The temperature Tuesday afternoon climbed to 93 degrees as personnel in heavy protective gear battled the blaze while standing just yards away from flames that reached 30 feet and more into the sky.
Mandy Jackson, the wife of one of the volunteer firefighters, said she “ran to Rite Aid and bought three cases of water and some ice” to help emergency crews stay hydrated.
There were no immediate reports of injury as a result of the blaze, and Frederick County Fire and Rescue spokeswoman Karen Vacchio said the cause of the fire has not been determined.
According to the Frederick County Commissioner of the Revenue’s Office, Ritter’s house, garage and farm are valued at $285,600.