THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, February 2, 1997 TAG: 9702020102
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY STEVE STONE, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: 41 lines
A woman was found dead in a town house early Saturday after firefighters responded to two unrelated blazes that broke out within minutes of each other.
The worst fire, a two-alarm blaze, was reported at 12:24 a.m. at the Maple Bay Townhomes in the 300 block of S. French Court, off Laskin Road.
Battalion Chief Chase Sargent said the first firefighters on the scene found the ground floor engulfed in flames with the blaze quickly moving to the second floor.
More fire trucks were called in and, eventually, there were about 30 firefighters from six engine companies, two ladder trucks and five support vehicles on the scene.
Once the flames had been knocked down enough that rescue crews could get in the house, they found the body of a 43-year-old woman. Her name was being withheld until relatives could be notified.
Police said the woman is believed to have lived in the town house.
A representative from the state medical examiner's office in Norfolk came to the scene to conduct a preliminary examination of the body, but additional work will be needed to determine the cause of death, said Mike Carey, a police spokesman.
Just minutes before that alarm, at 12:11 a.m., a fire was reported at the El Camino Motel in the 1800 block of Diamond Springs Road.
The crew of the first engine company on the scene there found one room engulfed in flames with the blaze spreading into rooms on both sides.
The fire gutted one room and caused significant damage to the other two.
No one was injured.
The causes of both fires remain under investigation. ILLUSTRATION: Photo by MARTIN C. GRUBE, Tidewater Fire Photographers
Association
Two Virginia Beach firefighters work to control a blaze on South
French Court early Saturday. A woman was found dead in the town
house after the two-alarm fire was brought under control.
KEYWORDS: FIRE FATALITY