Richmond fire officials ruled as accidental a blaze in which neighbors pulled a man from a smoke-filled house late Monday night in the West End. The fire started in a first-floor fireplace and gutted Tracy Osborne’s house in the 3300 block of Park Avenue, officials said. Osborne made it out safely, and two men lifted her friend, who identified himself as Johnny Drautz, off the floor and out the front door, neighbors said.

Henrico Fire Department trucks were at the scene of an apartment fire on Airport Drive shortly after noon. The fire was reported to be “through the roof” of an apartment in the 400 block of Airport Court near Nine Mile Road.

A 27-year-old man was convicted yesterday in Louisa County of setting fire to his twin brother’s home in Louisa County after an argument over a cell-phone bill, according to authorities. Joshua A. Follin was found guilty of arson for a fire Dec. 18, 2007, that destroyed a garage, two cars and several recreational motor vehicles, officials said.

Authorities in Richmond were investigating two fires they believe were deliberately set two blocks from each other in the Carver area yesterday. One was a two-alarm fire that significantly damaged a building under renovation near Virginia Commonwealth University’s Monroe Park campus. No injuries were reported in the fire, which was discovered shortly before 4 a.m. at a two-story vacant building in the 900 block of West Clay Street.

The fast-moving fire tore through a three-story building housing homeless people in northwestern Poland.

HERNDON—Fairfax County police say a fire that killed two people in a Herndon home was a murder-suicide. Investigators say an autopsy determined 55-year-old Chi-Len Chen was stabbed and killed and 55-year-old Ho Bih Chen died in the fire. Police say both lived in the home. Neighbors reported the fire around 4 a.m. Thursday at the home in the 12000 block of Eddyspark Drive.

At 10, Case Meijer might be Chesterfield County’s youngest hero. Last month, he saved the lives of his sisters after discovering a chimney fire in his Brandermill home. This week, the county’s Board of Supervisors recognized Case with a resolution for his valor. While playing video games with a friend in the early morning of Feb. 3, the fifth-grader noticed smoke.

A three-alarm fire that damaged 36 units at a Chesterfield County self-storage facility yesterday started in electrical wiring, Chesterfield Fire Marshal Robby Dawson said. No injuries were reported in the fire, which was discovered by a passerby about 7:30 a.m. at Iron Bridge Storage. The facility is in the 6000 block of Blest Lane, just off Iron Bridge Road near Chesterfield County Airport.

2 Richmond-area fires damage homes A fire yesterday morning caused significant damage to a home in western Henrico County, fire officials said. The fire in the 200 block of Ross Road was brought under control shortly before noon, said Capt. Chris Buehren of the Henrico Division of Fire. Several occupants were at the home and managed to escape without injury, he said. The residents also were able to rescue some of their pets. A cat was treated at the scene and survived, but a bird died, fire officials said.

Henrico apartment fire is ruled accidental A fire Sunday afternoon at the Honey Tree Apartment complex in western Henrico County has been ruled accidental. Fire investigators said yesterday that it originated in the below-grade laundry area of the complex and spread to the other floors of the building. The two-alarm fire destroyed half of the 24 units in a building at the complex off Forest Avenue near Henrico Doctors’ Hospital. Three firefighters and four residents were injured.

Fire forces evacuation of W&L fraternity house A lit cigarette may have caused a pre-dawn fire yesterday that forced the evacuation of all 15 residents of a Washington and Lee University fraternity house and caused about $200,000 in damage to the structure. One resident was treated for smoke inhalation and released from Stonewall Jackson Memorial Hospital in Lexington.

Richmond fire officials are investigating a blaze that started in a shed and spread to a house on Laburnum Avenue. The fire started about 9:40 a.m. in the 1700 block of Laburnum, and the American Red Cross is assisting five residents, officials said. Fire officials at first thought the fire might be suspicious in nature, but they now say the cause is undetermined.

One student was treated for smoke inhalation and released from the hospital.

A two-alarm fire that gutted three row houses in the Oregon Hill neighborhood Tuesday was accidental, Richmond fire officials said. The blaze originated in a sofa on the porch of the two-story, wood-frame structure, said Richmond Fire Department spokesman Lt. Shawn L. Jones. What started the fire has not been determined. Flames broke out in the 700 block of Albemarle Street about 3:30 p.m., displacing nine residents in the century-old buildings, Jones said. No people were injured. Firefighters were able to rescue a pet ferret and a cat from the building, but a dog died in the blaze, he said.

Fire officials said the blaze started in a couch, though the exact cause has not yet been determined. Three century-old homes were destroyed.