Four children were critically injured after fires at a Portsmouth day care center and Suffolk apartment building where crews rescued several kids.
By Caitlyn Burchett Source The Virginian-Pilot
Four young children are in the intensive care unit and six others are still being treated at the Children’s Hospital of The King’s Daughters following residential fires in Portsmouth and Suffolk.
A spokesperson for CHKD confirmed 10 fire victims, ages 2 to 9 years old, were transported to the area hospital’s emergency department Wednesday afternoon after fires broke out at a townhouse in Portsmouth and an apartment in Suffolk.
“As of noon today (Thursday), four of the 10 fire victims were in the intensive care unit of CHKD,” Elizabeth Simpson Earley said.
The other six children, Earley added, are being treated in the general care unit. Additional details, including the nature of the children’s injuries and which fire the four in ICU were victims of, were not available.
A total of 11 children escaped multi-family structure fires Wednesday — with nine being rescued from 4516 Greenwood Drive in Portsmouth and two others from the 400 block of Smith Street in Suffolk.
The Portsmouth and Chesapeake fire departments responded at approximately 1 p.m. to a reported fire with victims inside the Greenwood Drive townhome. A public record search confirmed that Indoor/Outdoor Reach LLC, a child care service, operated at that location. Attempts to reach Portsmouth’s Office of Economic Development to verify the business were not returned.
Two children were trapped on the second story of the burning building, said Julian Williamson, deputy chief of the Portsmouth Fire Department. The pair were rescued by Portsmouth fire crews and transported to a local hospital in critical condition.
Seven other children escaped the blaze on their own. However, five of the seven were transported to a hospital for non-life threatening injuries. The remaining two children were evaluated and stayed at the scene.
The Portsmouth Fire Marshal’s Office is investigating the circumstances, Williamson said.
Asked about initial reports that said only children were in the home at the time, Williamson said investigators have “not received any information that says anything different.”
Around the same time, at approximately 1:20 p.m., Suffolk Fire & Rescue responded to an apartment fire with victims trapped inside a building in the 400 block of Smith Street.
Suffolk fire crews pulled two children from a unit.
“Both were evaluated at the scene for possible smoke inhalation and were transported to an area hospital,” said Tim Kelley, spokesperson for the city of Suffolk, in a news release.
Kelley confirmed that one of the children was in critical condition.
The blaze, which was not marked under control until 3:15 p.m., nearly two hours after the initial call came in, also resulted in the hospitalization of three firefighters for heat exhaustion. One firefighter had been released from the hospital as of Thursday, while the other two remained. They were listed in stable condition.
The Smith Street fire in Suffolk displaced 11 people, including five adults and six children, according to Kelley.
The cause of the fire is still being investigated.
The American Red Cross will be assisting the victims of both fires.
Caitlyn Burchett, 727-267-6059, caitlyn.burchett@virginiamedia.com
Staff writer Ali Sullivan contributed to this report.
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