Fire Marshal

Eden Center Ringing In Chinese New Year With Illegal Fireworks

By ARLnow.com

Update at 12:30 p.m. — The situation is apparently still not resolved. More firefighters and police officers are on their way to Eden Center.

The Arlington County Fire Marshal’s office is calling for backup at the Eden Center in Fall Church, which is apparently going in a bit overboard in celebrating the Chinese New Year.

“They’re shooting fireworks all around this area,” a fire official radioed to dispatchers a few minutes ago, while requesting that Fall Church Police respond to the shopping center.

Arlington firefighters initially responded to the center for an activated fire alarm. They quickly determined that the fire alarm was set off by fireworks and called in the fire marshal.

Today marks the start of the Year of the Rabbit in the Chinese zodiac. The Year of the Rabbit is supposed to be quiet and peaceful, but given the ruckus at Eden Center that doesn’t seem to be the case so far.

Eden Center, which is primarily a Vietnamese shopping center, is actually celebrating the Year of the Cat, as the above poster illustrates. The Chinese character for rabbit translates to cat in Vietnamese, according to Wikipedia.

Arlington provides fire department services to Falls Church under contract.

Woman Dies After Lighting Herself on Fire in Falls Church

By ARLnow.com

It was a horrific scene on South James Street in Falls Church Saturday afternoon.

On a quiet residential street, two blocks away from the Broadale Village Shopping Center, a 54-year-old woman apparently doused herself with a flammable substance and lit herself on fire, according to Arlington fire department spokesperson Lt. Ed Hughes.

Falls Church police and Arlington firefighters and paramedics responded to the scene.

“Upon arrival, officers found a female, in her 50s, leaning against the outside wall of a residence, underneath a spigot with water running over her body,” Falls Church Police said in a statement today. “She had second and third degree burns over 70% of her body.”

The woman, whose identity has not been released, was rushed to nearby Thomas Jefferson Elementary School, where a helicopter was waiting to airlift her to the Washington Hospital Center burn unit. She succumbed to her injuries early Sunday morning, Falls Church Police said.

The Falls Church Police Department and the Arlington County Fire Marshal are investigating the incident as a possible suicide, according to Arlington Chief Fire Marshal Benjamin Barksdale.