Update: Fire Rips Through Centreville Home

Update, Feb. 28, 2:50 p.m.: Several of the family pets are missing and damage is estimated at $750,000. The Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department now estimates that the fire took about 40 minutes to get under control. 

Feb. 27 original story:

A fire tore through a home in the Hunt Chase community on Monday afternoon, taking out the attic, second floor and damaging most of the first floor. 

The fire started around 4:45 p.m. at 6304 Hunt Chase Ct. in Centreville. It tore through the entire attic, second floor and damaged a significant portion of the first floor. It took firefighters approximately 20 minutes to extinguish the fire, which started around the deck area.

Fairfax County firefighters initially took a handline to attack the fire on the second floor, but had to pull out for safety reasons, said Dep. Chief Keith Johnson. They then extinguished the fire from outside. As of 6:30 p.m. fire trucks still lined the streets as small fires burned in the embers on the roof. 

Five people were at home when the smoke detectors went off. They escaped mostly unharmed, though one person was being evaluated for smoke inhalation. The Red Cross has been notified for assistance.

Firefighters from Centreville stations 38 and 17, Chantilly station 15 and Crosspointe station 440 responded to the fire, the cause of which is still under investigation. No estimate of the amount of damage was available at the time of publication. 

Correction: an earlier version of this article stated that the home was in the Virginia Run community. The home is actually located in Hunt Chase, a small, separate community near VR.