Five adults and two dogs have been displaced after a house fire in Barboursville in the early hours of Sunday morning.
There were no injuries to report at the scene.
While the fire appears to be accidental in nature, the Albemarle County Fire Marshal’s Office is leading an investigation into the cause.
Career and volunteer crews with Albemarle County Fire Rescue and Orange County Fire & EMS were dispatched around 12:18 a.m. Sunday to a reported residential structure fire in the 3700 block of Vineyard Road just south of Barboursville Vineyards.
“The first fire suppression apparatus arrived on scene at approximately 12:42 am to discover smoke showing from the chimney and roof of a single family residence,” the fire department said in a statement.
The five adults and two dogs who resided at the property were able to evacuate themselves without injury. They are being assisted by the American Red Cross, the fire department said.
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The fire department used the opportunity to encourage residents to ensure their heating equipment is properly inspected and used, especially now during the coldest months of the year:
- Heating equipment and chimneys should be cleaned and inspected every year by a qualified professional.
- Anything that can burn should be kept at least 3 feet away from heating equipment, including furnaces, fireplaces, wood-burning stoves and portable space heaters.
- There should also be a 3-foot “kid-free zone” around open fires and space heaters.
- Portable heaters should be turned off when leaving a room or going to bed.
- Fireplaces should have a sturdy screen to stop sparks from flying into a room, and ashes should be cool before putting them in a metal container a safe distance from the house.
- And smoke alarms should be tested at least once a month.
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