A father is hospitalized with potentially life-threatening injuries after rescuing his family's dog from a fire at their home in Prince William County, Virginia, overnight Wednesday.
Flames erupted from the home in the Lake Ridge area of the county shortly after midnight Wednesday.
A mother and daughter escaped the house fire, and the father suffered severe burns while rescuing the family's dog from the house on Point Longstreet Way, fire officials said.
Medics took the father to a hospital in a helicopter.
Neighbors told News4 they heard what sounded like an explosion.
"I just heard two consecutive booms," neighbor Deanna Vasquez said.
"A lady from all the way down here heard the explosion and walked up," neighbor Hannah Pike said. "From the time it was heard to looking outside the window, the whole entire back of the house was on fire."
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The home's roof burned through and its back patio transformed into a pile of ash.
There is no word yet on an exact cause of the fire, but the fire marshal is investigating it as accidental.
