A woman and two of her children are dead while three other siblings and their uncle are hospitalized after a fire Wednesday morning at a home in Lorton, Va.
"This morning, I heard a man screaming, screaming, screaming," neighbor Beth Babington said. "He sounded like he was in distress. I called 911. I was put on hold. The operator said there were other calls coming in."
The two-alarm fire at a two-story townhouse in the 9600 block of Hagel Circle broke out at about 8:30 a.m.
"The fire did push them out," Fairfax County Fire Capt. Willie Bailey said about the first firefighters to reach the scene. "They tried to go through the upstairs window, with fire coming out of the window, and they did get inside, did get to pull one child outside of that window and tried to resuscitate him, to no avail. Horrific event. I mean, the firefighters, I can see it on their faces, when I got here, that they were ... it just got to them."
A man and three children managed to escape before firefighters arrived. They were transported to the Washington Hospital Center Burn Center.
"The kids jumped out the second-floor window and the mom threw the baby out to the uncle," neighbor Nordia Smith said. "The mom and the other kids didn’t make it out."
That baby, a 2-month-old girl, was flown to the hospital. The other survivors were transported with non-life-threatening injuries. But the woman and her 5- and 3-year-old sons died.
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The cause of the fire is under investigation.
Neighbor Stacey Wood said the townhouse was without power for two days.
"I think it may have been they may have fallen asleep with candles lit or something," she said. "I took her to the store last night to buy candles because they didn’t have electric."
More than 60 firefighters were still at the scene putting out hot spots at 11 a.m. Firefighters from Fort Belvoir, Springfield and Lorton also responded to assist Fairfax County Fire.
The entire second floor of the townhouse was gutted by fire.
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