Fire district officials said the house at 314 Dahlgren, owned by Thomas Wilkinson, caught fire around 8:30 a.m. The cause of the blaze, although still undetermined, was believed to be either a barbecue pit on the front porch deck or possibly a cigarette which was left smoldering around the deck. "I can't say for certain which it is," said Warrenton Fire Protection District Chief Mike Owenby. "But those are the two things I suspect, based on the way the fire spread to the structure." Owenby speculated the fire probably started on the deck, possibly amid some leaves which had collected below, and then spread to the house and the roof. "That's where it was concentrated," said Owenby. "You can tell that from the deeply charred spot in the roof. I've got interior drywall which is still clean in the living room." The radiant heat was so intense at the spot of the fire it damaged Wilkinson's GMC vehicle parked in the driveway. The heat also buckled vinyl siding on a neighbor's house to the east, located at 400 Dahlgren. Warren County Sheriff's Department K-9 officer Sgt. Ed McCormick was first on the scene. McCormick said he was heading south on Highway 47 en route to a training exercise with his dog Bronto when he noticed "thick black smoke" coming from the direction of Dahlgren. "I knew right away it wasn't someone burning leaves," said McCormick, a former member of the Warrenton Fire Protection District. "It had to be a house. "The smoke was as black as tar," added McCormick. McCormick drove to the scene and said the house at 314 Dahlgren was completely engulfed in flames. "A couple of neighbors ran toward me and said they thought there was someone in the basement," McCormick said. "I ran around to the west side of the home and saw a man coming out of the basement." The man was Wilkinson, who told fire officials he had been asleep downstairs. He was awakened, he said, by a series of loud noises. Wilkinson was dazed, but unharmed. No other injuries were reported.

Fire Destroys Warrenton House

Fire Destroys Warrenton House