Hoarding situation in Richmond causes house to catch on fire twice

RICHMOND, Va. (WWBT) -Firefighters in Richmond say an extreme hoarding situation caused a house to catch fire twice Tuesday afternoon and into the evening.

On Feb. 8, around 2:45 p.m., crews responded to a home in the 1600 block of North 35th Street for the report of a house fire.

Once on scene, they found light smoke coming from the unoccupied home. It took crews almost an hour to put out the fire through extreme hoarding conditions in the house. The incident was first marked under control at 3:31 p.m., but due to the excessive amount of items in the structure, another fire started within the hour.

Firefighters called for more manpower just before 5 p.m. Crews say things were piled to the ceiling, making it challenging to find the source of the smoldering fire. It took crews nearly three hours to put out the two-alarm blaze.

No injuries were reported, and the Red Cross is helping the home’s sole occupant find a place to stay.

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