No Injuries in Two-Alarm House Fire on Sullenburger Court in Lorton

No one was home today when a house on Sullenburger Court in Lorton caught fire, according to Fairfax County Fire and Rescue.

A driver saw smoke or fire and called it in Wednesday at 3:09 p.m., thinking it was a fire in the woods, according to Fairfax Fire and Rescue.

The first fire truck on the scene arrived at 3:18 p.m. from Station 435, the Pohick station.

As soon as they arrived, they realized the fire was not in the woods, but that a house was on fire and called in reinforcements. In all three engines arrived, one from the Crosspointe station and another from the Franconia station. The engines arrived within minutes.

Incident Commander, Capt. Carlton Burkhammer, said at first firefighters were under the impression that people were inside: "As soon as we got here we heard there were two people trapped inside. When we were up on the second floor looking for them, the ceiling started to collapse and we got out of there."

It turned out that no one was at home at the time of the fire.

When firefighters arrived, there was "a large amount of fire coming through the roof through all sides" of the two-story home. The basement and the first floor are "fairly clear except for water damage."

The homeowner, who asked Patch not to identify him, arrived home to find his home in shambles. 

"I just got home, I had no idea about the fire," he said. He said he did not know what could have caused the fire.

Fire investigators are on the scene and did not yet have an estimate on the damages. The family was displaced by the fire.

Traffic was being diverted this afternoon near the scene.