Home blazes into ruins

A house fire on the morning of April 15 has left an Amherst County couple homeless.

At 10:03 a.m. emergency dispatchers received the call and responded to a single-story wood-frame house on Woodrow Avenue, in Monroe, according to Amherst County Public Safety Director Gary Roakes.

Firefighters from the Monelison Volunteer Fire Department and Amherst Fire Department responded to the scene, the first arriving at 10:16.

Roakes said the fire was under control within about 35 minutes, but the fire caused enough damage to call the house a total loss.

“The firefighters did a really good job, as far as containing the fire to the front part of the house,” he said, but given the age of the house and the extent of the smoke damage, the house was not salvageable.

Neither of the occupants were hurt, and Roakes added that no firefighters were injured fighting the blaze.

Authorities would not release the name of the occupants.

The cause of the fire is still unknown, Roakes said, but it appeared, given the location of the fire, that it started outside the building, near the front porch.

Roakes said the residents are staying with family while they have no house. He added that they did not have fire insurance on the destroyed building, but he did not have an estimate on the monetary loss.

The Historic Virginia Chapter of the American Red Cross is assisting the couple with food and necessities.