Christmas for a Chilhowie, Va., couple began with a windstorm that knocked
out their power, and ended, tragically, with a fiery blaze that claimed
their lives.
At a quarter past midnight Saturday, a neighbor dialed 911 to tell an
emergency dispatcher of a fire at a mobile home on Schuler Mountain Road, a
cul-de-sac just inside George Washington National Forest. That was where
Daniel Robert Smith, 64, and Sylvia Diane Smith, 55, had lived for 10 years
with their dogs, according to the Washington County Sheriff’s Office.
Shawn Lawson, a Damascus volunteer firefighter, didn’t bother reporting to
his station when the call came in. He arrived at the scene in about four
minutes, finding the mobile home fully engulfed in flames with its roof
collapsing.
“All I could do was keep people back from it,” Lawson said Saturday.
The flames leapt from the house to a minivan next to it, consuming the
vehicle, Lawson said. The heat of the flames melted the paint on a truck
next to the minivan.
“As soon as the trucks got there, I grabbed a hose and started to fight the
fire,” Lawson said. Within 15 minutes, firefighters from Damascus and Glade
Spring had reduced the blaze to a point where they could access the mobile
home.
Daniel Smith lay dead about a foot away from the door. Sylvia Smith lay
dead about 15 feet away, under the collapsed roof. Lawson said he and other
workers recovered three dogs, though the Washington County Sheriff’s Office
said four dogs had perished.
The cause of the fire has not been determined and authorities are
continuing to investigate.
Citing interviews with family members and neighbors, Lawson and Washington
County officials said Daniel Smith smoked cigarettes and his “poor health
condition required the use of oxygen.”
Officials also noted that the windstorm Thursday night had interrupted
power to the Smith’s residence.
“It was pretty rough,” Lawson said. “Something like that you just don’t
ever forget.”
dgilbert@bristolnews.com | (276) 645-2558
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