Fire that killed two in Lynchburg weighs heavily on neighbors, firefighters

Antoinette Kirchner woke to a series of loud pops and the flash of emergency lights barreling toward her Graham Street home.

She wondered at first if the sound came from gunshots, but then noticed a red glow coming through the bathroom window of her house. That’s when she yelled to her husband that something was wrong.

Outside, she saw the home of her friend and neighbor, Virginia Ware, fully engulfed in flames at 2 a.m. Saturday. Virginia’s son, Nick, and her grandson, Mac, had made it out of the house, but Kirchner didn’t see Virginia or her daughter-in-law, Lee, until firefighters pulled them from the home and tried to resuscitate them.

“I feel so hurt,” Kirchner said on Monday. “It’s impressed in my head — every one of those flames. I just knew she wasn’t going to survive it.”

Virginia Ware and Lee Ware were flown to the VCU Medical Center in Richmond where they died the following day. Nick Ware was burned in the fire, Kirchner said, and is still hospitalized. Mac Ware, 18, was treated at Lynchburg General Hospital and released.

Virginia Ware was the widow of Lynchburg Assistant Fire Chief Edward Anderson Ware, who suffered a heart attack and died on duty in 1974 after serving 34 years in the Lynchburg Fire Department.

Edward Ware was assigned to the B shift at the Fifth Street fire station, which later moved to Clay Street. That shift was on duty when Saturday’s fire broke out and firefighters from the Clay Street station were some of the first on the scene.

Two fire engines responded within minutes to the narrow dead-end street and bottlenecked at the top, said firefighter Steve Ripley. Only a couple of trucks could fit on the road and the rest of the machinery stayed on another road as firefighters ran down to the blaze.

“We knew it was going to be a butt-kicker,” said firefighter Carey Orange. “We had a lot of things working against us. The fire had got a head start. The street was a tight dead-end street.”

Orange and firefighter Scott Stanley found Nick and Mac Ware outside the house and began to question them on the layout of the home and location of the bedrooms.

“He was telling us they were still trapped,” Stanley said. “I said, ‘We’ll get them.’”

Firefighters John Ripley and Stanley began knocking back the flames for Orange and Steve Ripley and three others to search for the other two victims.

Despite being fully covered in protective gear, the heat was so intense that John Ripley suffered burns to his ear and his back.

“Your adrenaline goes up 100 percent,” he said. “It’s a whole lot different when there are victims inside.”

Firefighters searched the upstairs of the house for one of the victims. The heat was so intense that the thermal-imaging camera used to look for heat signatures from a person would not work.

Firefighters carried both victims out of the home and to the sidewalk, where they tried to resuscitate them.

“We were spent,” Orange said. “Then you look back up at the house and it’s still on fire.”

Fire Marshal Greg Wormser said the fire began when clothing near a baseboard heater ignited. He said he did not know if there were functioning smoke detectors in the house.

In total, 28 firefighters responded to the blaze.

“It’s the first fire I’ve been to with the potential for that many victims,” firefighter Abbey Meacham said.

The firefighters who responded to Saturday’s blaze did not realize whose home it was until one of them walked out carrying Edward Ware’s helmet.

Firefighters often second-guess their actions on calls where the outcome isn’t good. Deputy Chief Walter Bailey said his firefighters did everything they could to save the family.

Firefighters remained at the scene until about 10 a.m. Saturday to make sure none of the embers flared up and to allow family members to gather what belongings they could.

Kirchner took in one of the Wares’ dogs and a cat. The other dog, whose bark she said woke Nick and Mac Ware up, died as a result of the fire.

Kirchner knew Virginia Ware for 17 years and thought of her as a mother. She looked at the tiny yellow roses that Virginia gave her growing in her garden and recalled that Virginia’s favorite color was yellow.

“We used to do a lot of things together,” Kirchner said. “I miss her already.”

Virginia was very active at Rivermont Baptist Church and Kirchner said residents along Graham Street have bound together to help the family.

As the neighborhood mobilized to help, the firefighters left the smoldering house to other calls for help on a busy Saturday night.

“It was just one call of a whole bunch,” Stanley said. “It was by far the worst call.”

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