NEWPORT NEWS, Va. (WAVY) — A woman died in a mobile home on Troy Drive in Newport News.
Dispatch said they received a 911 call around 4 a.m. from a tow truck driver for the fire in the 200 block of Troy Drive. Crews arrived at the scene and pulled the woman out from inside the home. She died a short time later.
No other injuries were reported.
Neighbors and firefighters did what they could to save the woman who lived here, but it was too late.
“We tried our best to help the family, but we couldn’t do anything,” said one neighbor, Zaira Martinez.
When crews got to the scene, they pulled the woman out from inside the home.
“It was really, really sad,” said Martinez.
Martinez says the woman who died was older, and also took care of two little girls. Neighbors tell 10 On Your Side the victim was their grandmother.
Fire officials confirmed the children were not home at the time of the fire.
Martinez said her family tried to use a sledgehammer to knock the door down, but they couldn’t get inside because the flames were so strong.
“My mother woke me up telling me the house was caught on fire. So, we got this thing to knock the door, but it was I guess too late. Then the guys came, and they went inside to go find the family and kids,” Martinez stated.
Later Friday afternoon, fire investigators and police were back sifting through the ashes.
They laid evidence markers in the back of the home after a dog trained to sniff for accelerants searched the scene.
Fire officials are still working to learn what sparked the flames, and whether it’s suspicious or not.
The name of the victim has not been released yet, as the family is still being notified.
“We extend our sincere condolences to the family on this very sad loss,” the Newport News Fire Department wrote in a post on Facebook.
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