Attic Fire in Kenmore Avenue Apartment

At 7:35 p.m. August 21, the Fredericksburg Emergency Communications Center received a 9-1-1 call reporting a possible fire in the attic of 1324 Kenmore Ave.  The caller was in apartment D. Fire Department units responded at 7:36 p.m. and arrived a short time later to find smoke coming from three attic vents above the two-story brick apartment house.  

Initial crews advanced a hose line up into the attic space above 1324 Kenmore and then crawled thru the common attic space until they found fire in the ceiling area above the 1320 Kenmore Ave address at apartment D. 

Fire crews extinguished all visible fire and then proceeded to overhaul the affected areas. At the same time a 2nd hose line was moved into position in apartment D and crews pulled ceiling down to expose additional fire and extinguish it. 

All crews spent a great deal of time overhauling the areas to search for any hidden fire and make sure that extension did not occur.  Firefighters were hampered by the amount of blown-in style insulation that made it difficult to trace the origin of the fire.

An origin and cause investigation was done by the Fire Marshal’s Office of the Fredericksburg Fire Department. The origin appears to be in the ceiling area of apartment D in the 1320 building.  Cause is still under investigation at this time, but appears to be electrical in nature. The last fire unit cleared the scene about 10 p.m.