Lake Ridge house fire kills 80-year-old woman
Harriet Lucille Clark-Drake died in her 12232 Dapple Gray Court bedroom, the room to which the fire was confined, Battalion Chief C. Hadden Culp, Prince William fire and rescue spokesman, said Friday. The cause is unknown. Fire marshals are still investigating, but have been able to rule the fire as accidental, Culp said.
The woman died after three relatives and a neighbor attempted to rescue her but could not. The faces of the three relatives, a middle-aged man, a young woman and a young man, were darkened with what appeared to be soot, less than an hour after the fire.
None of them went to the hospital for treatment Friday morning, Culp said.
The fire occurred in a bottom-floor bedroom in the large, light blue and gray home, still adorned with lights, Christmas bows and a Nativity scene on the front lawn.
The Red Cross arrived on scene to assist the surviving relatives.
Friday’s blaze marked the second county fire calamity in two days.
A 47-year-old woman with the last name of Mires suffered second- and third-degree burns over 90 percent of her body Thursday at 1:30 p.m. after a bedroom fire in her 14591 Lightner Road home near Haymarket.
She is listed in critical condition at Washington Hospital Center’s burn unit and is expected to be there for some time, a hospital representative told the Potomac News and Manassas Journal Messenger on Friday.
The cause of the fire, which caused $45,000 worth of damage to the home, is still under investigation.