At 8 AM, Saturday, April 13, 2013, Ryan Dowden
smelled smoke in his rented house, at 48 East Broadway, and was soon engulfed
in smoke.
Ryan couldn’t tell where the fire was, but all he
could think of was saving his young wife, Amanda, and their 18 month old son,
Silas.
Ryan got them out of the house as fast as he could, and
called “911,” hoping all would not be lost.
“I did the best I could to get them out,” Ryan said.
“I tried to save a collection of Silas’ ‘firsts,’”
Amanda said, “Silas’ first base ball, his first cap, but as you can see it all got
beaten up in the fire; still, I had to try to save these things.”
A charred baseball, a barely recognizable blackened cap,
and a pile of wet and seared papers lay in a pile on the ground to pick apart and
salvage later.
Overwhelmed by what could have gone wrong, Amanda
cried.
First on the scene was the Lovettsville Volunteer
Fire and Rescue Company 12 with a wagon, water tanker, and ambulance, headed up
by the Fire Chief, Jack Hockman, assisted by the Rescue Engineer, EMF
Supervisor, and five fire fighters.
“When we arrived, the whole street was a giant haze
of smoke, you could hardly see,” said Rescue Engineer, Ryan D. Spencer.
Several companies responded within minutes afterwards
including Brunswick’s “Fighting Fifth” Fire Company, Purcellville’s Volunteer
Fire Department (and “their Deuce” – the Tower and the Fire Truck), and the Point
of Rocks Volunteer Fire Department.
Lovettsville Company Member, Richie Hoopengardner,
said, “the fire in the house, it was a dryer fire.”
Ryan Spencer said, “It appears the fire started in
the washer-dryer, and the men carried that out of the house, secured the rooms,
and the smoke began to subside.”
Lovettsville Fire Lieutenant Andrew O’Connell, and
Fire Fighters Rob Berka and John McIntyre were the first in the house.
The badly burned and broken washer dryer sat on the
small side porch, blackened by the smoke that vanished when the water hoses
suffocated the flames. The fire men had made
a quick interior tack and put water on the fire as quickly as possible. “We attached the hoses at the hydrant just up
the block,” Ryan Spencer said.
East Broadway was closed off to traffic for hours with
the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Department directing traffic to alternative
routes. The streets were filled with multi-colored
emergency vehicles and fire trucks. No
one could get through until it was all safe.
Lovettsville Fire Chief Hockman said, “we saved the
building but there’s extensive damage.”
Fireman assembled around the house analyzing what
they found while a crew from the Purcellville Volunteers investigated the
smoke-damaged crawl space at the roof level.
On the lawn not far away, Amanda held her son,
Silas, close and Amanda’s mom, Carol Neff, consoled her daughter and
grand-child. “I’m just glad they weren’t
asleep,” Carol said.
“I saved Silas’ favorite blanket,” Amanda said,
“it’s resting on the green grass over there.”
“I’m in shock, and discouraged,” Ryan said, “as a
father and a man.”
Then Ryan and Amanda held each other and Silas
between them, grateful to be alive and together.
(If you want to help the young Dowden family, who will be staying with family in the area, you can write Amanda at AmandaDowden3@gmail.com).
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