Manassas area fire damage totals $1.5 million

Officials have condemned a Manassas area apartment building ravaged by fire early Friday morning.

Just before 4 a.m. a call went out for a fire at Ravens Crest Apartments, just off Sudley Manor Drive.

Hours later a 31-year-old firefighter had been injured and rescue crews were combing through the remains of a second-floor apartment reduced only to soot and ash, as a result of the two alarm fire.

“I opened the door, saw the smoke and the fire, ran inside, grabbed the dog, put on shoes and left,” said Ashley Short, 24, describing her early-morning escape from her third-floor apartment at 11035 Edgepark Circle.

She and her boyfriend, John Bolen, 26, sat outside of the Ravens Crest clubhouse with their dog, Roxy, only hours after the fire was extinguished.

Bolen said the top of the building was engulfed in flames when he and Short made it out of the apartment, but firefighters arrived only a minute or so later and quickly brought the fire under control.

“Those flames were probably shooting 30 feet in the air,” Bolen said. “I thought the whole thing was gone.”

The injured firefighter is a member of the Dale City Volunteer Fire and Rescue Department, and hurt his knee when he fell through the floor of one of the burning apartment homes.

“Other than some minor muscular damage he is going to be OK, and has already been released from the hospital,” said Dale City Volunteer Fire and Rescue Chief Christopher Hool.

In the end 33 adults and 12 children, at 11033, 11035 and 11037 Edgepark Circle, were all evacuated from their apartments and moved to temporary housing.

The fire started on the balcony of apartment 203 and quickly spread to at least 18 other apartments, said Prince William Fire and Rescue Chief Joseph Robertson.

The cause of the fire was ruled accidental, and did an estimated $1.5 million in damage.

The blaze was so intense Robertson said firefighters responding to the call could see an orange glow in the sky from Gainesville – nearly 10 miles away from the apartment complex.

The silver lining is that all of the displaced residents had renters insurance, said Mike Bowen, a maintenance supervisor for the apartment complex.

A similar fire occurred at Ravens Crest four years ago, said Bowen.

That one happened because of some apartment dwellers who were putting fireplace ashes in a bag and keeping them on the balcony.

Staff writer Uriah A. Kiser contributed to this report.