Three Found Dead After Garage Apartment Fire in Gloucester County

Overview

• Deputies and Gloucester Volunteer Fire & Rescue responded to a structure fire in the 4200 block of Hickory Fork Road and found a detached garage with an upstairs apartment fully engulfed in flames around 2:42 a.m. on Sunday.
• Fire crews put out the blaze in about 20 to 30 minutes but had to bring in outside equipment to gain access for recovery and investigation.
• Once investigators entered the scene they discovered three bodies believed to be the two adults and one juvenile who lived in the upstairs unit.
• Officials say oxygen tanks were stored on the garage’s lower level and that small explosions were heard at the scene, a developing lead in the cause of the fire and the victims’ deaths.
• The Tidewater Office of the Chief Medical Examiner dispatched a medicolegal investigator and Gloucester criminal investigators requested help from the Virginia State Police BCI; authorities say there is no known ongoing danger and have not released the victims’ names.