LUCKETTS, Va. — A family in Lucketts lost everything to a house fire on Thanksgiving Day.
The fire sparked before noon on Wilt Store road in Loudoun County. A relative on her way to spend Thanksgiving at the house said her uncle Syd Fearing, a local handyman, and wife also lost their beloved pet "Little Dog" and two cats.
The Loudoun County Fire Marshal's Office pointed the cause of the fire to a malfunction within a golf cart stored on the exterior of the home beneath a covered deck. A relative said the golf car was used to help Fearing, a burn survivor from a fire as a child, used to get around because of a bad leg.
Syd Fearing's wife was cooking food when the kitchen got dark and the windows were black from the flames. Everyone including their two-year-old granddaughter escaped, but Syd Fearing sustained a minor burn to his forehead.
"My father got severely burned when he was a teenager, so when the EMT's came and pointed out the burn, he said it was nothing and did not want to make a fuss," Syd Fearing's son Zebadiah Fearing told WUSA9. "I was snuggling my daughter last night and her hair kind of smelled of smoke and that's enough to tear your heart into pieces."
The family owned the 200-year-old home for more than 70 years. Everything was destroyed aside from the clothes the family was wearing when they escaped.
Many loved ones, friends and community members quickly responded to assist the family.
Zebadiah Fearing described the flames ripping through the home within only minutes. Firefighters brought the fire under control in about 90 minutes. One firefighter was injured during the incident and transported to an area hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, according to the Loudoun County Fire & Rescue Department.
There is an average of 2,300 residential building fires reported to fire departments across the country on Thanksgiving Day from 2017 to 2019, per data from the U.S. Fire Administration. The fires cause an annual average of about five deaths, 25 injuries and $26 million in property loss.
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