Fire destroys Roanoke County home

By Candice Nelson
WSLS10 Reporter
Published: November 25, 2008

6:14 p.m

By Candice Nelson

WSLS Reporter

A local home is now a total loss after a fire destroyed it. It happened in the 5900 block of Old Mountain Road in Roanoke County.  Luckily, nobody was inside the home when it started.

The fire started on one side of the home but the wind helped it quickly spread – engulfing the roof and taking over the inside.

Lee Webb was visiting a friend nearby and saw it when the flames started.

“Noticed a lot of smoke coming from the chimney but noticed it wasn’t coming out of the chimney, but around it. Before I left, I said ‘let me take one more look at it.‘ And I went back up to take a look at it. The house had caught on fire,” he said.

Webb tried to put it out before it ever reached this point.
   
“We took a water hose and tried to put out the water in the back, but there just wasn’t enough water pressure and too much fire so we couldn’t do nothing with it,” he said.

One of the challenges firefighters faced was the home was uphill. So when the fire hose was connected only to the fire hydrant, it lost water pressure. Firefighters had to connect a fire truck between the hydrant and hose to help boost the pressure.

Jackie Journiette is a relative and a neighbor and thinks the father was gone for the holidays.
 
“From my guess he’s in Atlanta,” Journiette said.

Through all the smoke and flames, Journiette thinks he knows what started it.

“He been using a wood stove for about ten years and it’s probably that wood stove that caught the fire - what caught the chimney on fire,” Journiette guessed.

That’s something for the investigators to determine now, a home that’s caved in- a total loss.

Fire officials said it took them an hour and a half to get the fire under control. Luckily the family has a place to stay.

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4:18 p.m.

WSLS News Staff

Roanoke County Fire and Rescue says they got the call about the fire around 1:30 p.m.

The home is in the 5900 block of Old Mountain Road.

When firefighters arrived, they saw heavy smoke, and flames comign from the chimney and roof.  Firefighters say the wind helped spread the flames quickly across the home’s roofline.

The commander on the scene told firefighters to evacuate the home within ten minutes of their arrival, because he feared the home may collapse.

Additional firefighters from Hollins and Vinton got called to help.  It took firefighters about an hour and a half to get the fire under control.

Firefighters say the home’s roof burned completely off, and there’s heavy fire damage to the entire first floor and basement of the home.

A man and his two sons live in the home, but were not home.  Firefighters found the family’s dog outside, but the family’s cat has not been found.

The family has a place to stay.

Fire investigators will start their work when the debris cools down.

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3:48 p.m.

WSLS News Staff

We’ve learned that the family who owns the home was not there during the fire.

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2:10 p.m.

WSLS News Staff

A fire burns a Roanoke County home Tuesday afternoon.

Flames and smoke billowed from a home on Old Mountain Road around 1:50 p.m.

The home is near the western foot of Read Mountain.

10 On Your Side’s Candice Nelson is on the scene.  More information as it becomes available.