(Updated at 12:50 p.m.) Police and firefighters responded to a two-alarm house fire this morning on the 2300 block of N. Dinwiddie Street, near the intersection of Lee Highway.
The two-story house was fully engulfed in flames when rescuers arrived.
At least two people are reported to be hurt, and were transported via ambulance to a local burn center. Drew Lofton, a witness, says one woman jumped to safety from a second story window, at the encouragement of neighbors who rushed to the house after spotting the smoke and flames. A third resident was rescued from the basement.
Samantha Pozo tells ARLnow.com that she was in the basement of the house and was rescued, along with her two pet ferrets, by a firefighter. The basement was filling with smoke and she was still on the phone with a 911 operator when a firefighter found her and escorted her to safety.
“He came to me and he said to go,” Pozo said. “He took my ferrets and we just got out of there.”
Pozo, who was uninjured, says the fire started suddenly.
“I heard an explosion from the kitchen, I believe,” she said. “Then I saw fire and smoke outside my door.”
According to Pozo, a student at Northern Virginia Community College, six women live in the house. Her roommate downstairs was at school at the time of the fire.
Police shut down westbound Lee Highway at Glebe Road and several neighborhood street for more than two hours due to the large fire response.
Heat from the fire melted the siding on an adjacent house, and caused damage to the side of another adjacent house.