Firefighters found a body when they responded to a pre-dawn fire Tuesday at a vacant house in South Richmond.
Richmond Fire Marshal David Creasy said the body, which appeared to be that of a man, would be sent to the medical examiner�s office to determine the cause and manner of death.
The fire was reported at 5:40 a.m. in the 3900 block of East Broad Rock Road, just across Broad Rock from the main entrance to the McGuire Veterans Affairs Medical Center.
The first units on the scene encountered smoke and flames coming from the windows of the front right room on the first floor of a small brick Cape Cod-style house, and the fire was quickly brought under control.
The body was found in the front right room.
�Evidently, we�ve had some squatters going in and out of the building over the last year and a half or so,� Creasy said.
Authorities were working to determine the identity of the body.
�We do know that the person was burned,� Creasy said, adding that it was premature to definitively say the person died as a result of the fire.
�It appears that way,� Creasy said, �but at this early stage, we really don�t know. That�s what the medical examiner�s office will be able to tell us. But it looks that way.�
Creasy said the fire, which was called in by a passer-by, was contained to the room where the body was found.
Authorities also were working to find the owner of the house, which had not been inhabited in an extended period.
Creasy said someone had been storing an extensive amount of items throughout the house, and that the volume of debris inside would add to the work of fire investigators trying to determine the cause of the fire.
�This is going to be a slow and laborious operation,� he said.
jmacenka@timesdispatch.com
(804) 649-6804
Source: http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNGnuaPh-GUO5Jl3TGlztHwaBhet4w&url=http://www.timesdispatch.com/news/local/city-of-richmond/richmond-firefighters-find-body-inside-burning-house/article_9dafdad8-eab1-5f58-8e77-21f5eb4dc477.html
No comments:
Post a Comment