Buckingham County Cabin Fire

Charles Stish, staff writer

 

YOGAVILLE, VA –  On Jan 31, 2017, at around 9:15 p.m. the residents of Karuna Lane were enjoying a regular, but abnormally warm, winter Tuesday night in the rural wilderness of Buckingham county, secluded from any major points of civilization. The street was quiet with only the light from windows, lawn lights, and outside spotlights illuminating the air. Suddenly, a small cabin on Karuna Lane began to emit smoke from its structure. Constructed from Cedar and White Pine lumber, the lovingly named Green River Cabin was ablaze in a matter of seconds. With the base structure of the cabin being made of pinewood, the Green River Cabin was a giant tinder box.

The local residents were soon choking on wood smoke and immediately called Buckingham dispatch, where Glenmore Volunteer Fire Department (GVFD) and Toga Volunteer Fire Department (TVFD) were called to fight the raging inferno.

Minutes after the call, the firefighters were mobilizing as fast as humanly possible to the scene. At this time, the structure fire was hot and mean, scorching the nearby ground, trees, and cottage. This made the threat of the entire area going ablaze all the more real.

 

By 9:40 p.m. GVFD and TVFD firefighters had an attack truck, two fire engines, and water tankers on scene. The firefighters were battling the blaze with water and foam, hitting strategic locations on the structure with the highly pressurized liquids. Some firefighters were running the fire trucks, making sure water pressure and levels were nominal. Others stood only 15 feet away from the raging inferno working the hoses, and more began moving valuables out of the nearby cottage, which sat only 20 feet from the cabin and had caught ablaze from the sheer heat of the fire.

Since the cabin was too involved to be saved by the time of their arrival, the firefighters worked to control and extinguish the blaze before more damage could be done to the area.   

“The fire was so hot at first, you could barely look at it,” said a GVFD member. Even standing 75 feet away one could feel the heat coming from the raging fire. The firefighters could only stand close because of their fire retardant equipment, anything less and a person could find themselves covered in first and second degree burns.

While the firefighters worked to end the inferno, bystanders amassed and watched from a safe distance the silhouettes of the firefighters racing across the backdrop of the red and orange flames that licked and danced. The color of the night went from black to crimson red all in a matter of minutes.

Among the onlookers, Dhyani Simonini watched her beautiful Green River Cabin  turn from the reddish-brown of Cedar to blackened and burned lumber. Simonini, a retired school teacher, an Integral Yoga minister, and a close worker with the American Red Cross, rented out the cabin for supplemental income. Luckily enough, the renter of her property, Shakti Devi, was not in the cabin when it caught fire.

Although the small adjacent cottage (named The Doll House), which Simonini also owns and rents, was threatened by the fire, it only suffered some burn damage and is in need of repair.

The firefighters fought the blaze for three and a half hours. Even though the majority of the flames were out after an hour, the firefighters had to search for hotspots in certain areas where heat was trapped and hose them down to effectively end the fire. At one point, they even used a chainsaw to open up a wall in order to get a hose into an inaccessible part of the cabin. The area was inaccessible as part of the tin roof caved in, cordoning off part of the cabin effectively, acting as a burned and blackened metal shield to the flames behind it.

After inspection, firefighters are unsure, but they believe the fire was caused by an electrical malfunction in the circuit breaker box located in the cabin’s closet, which was said to be stuffed full of books and linens.

George Cortesi, Yogaville resident and handy-man, said, “I drove by it this morning, and it actually hit me at how devastating it was.”

As of now, the entire Yogaville community is supporting Deva and Simonini in anyway possible, especially Deva, who lost everything in the fire. Deva is now temporarily living in guest quarters on the Integral Yoga Ashram until more permanent lodging can be found.