By Rex Bowman
The Roanoke Times
STEWARTSVILLE, Va. — Three Bedford County firefighters managed to escape serious injury Monday after beams in a burning house collapsed on them in the Stewartsville community.
Two firefighters were briefly in the hospital Monday and a third was slightly injured when all three were pinned down.
Jack Jones, chief of fire and rescue services in the county, said the firefighters — who were not identified Monday — belong to the Stewartsville-Chamblissburg Volunteer Fire Company.
One went to Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital with minor injuries and heat exhaustion.
Another was sent to the hospital after experiencing back pains. Both were later released.
Jones said the firefighters were in a “really tight area” of the house when thick wooden beams dropped on them.
“How they were able to get out of there — it was the grace of God,” Jones said. “They were hit, beaten and knocked to the floor.”
The fire, the cause of which is still under investigation, broke out in an unoccupied home on Sandy Level Road about 7 a.m. Monday.
When the beams dropped, all three firefighters found themselves pinned.
“Two of them were able to crawl out” from the debris, Jones said.
The two helped the third firefighter, and one of them called a mayday.
The call was the signal for the Rapid Intervention Team, which pulled the three firefighters to safety.
The home, perhaps a century old, was completely destroyed.
The home’s occupant had died recently. Firefighters from the Stewartsville-Chamblissburg, Hardy, Montvale, Forest and Bedford volunteer companies fought the blaze.
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