ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, March 20, 1996 TAG: 9603200078
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BETTY HAYDEN
A Tuesday afternoon house fire in Bedford County sent four people to the hospital before firefighters reached the scene.
Donald Hale, chief of the Bedford Volunteer Fire Department, said crews responded about 1:30 and found half of the one-story frame house's roof on fire.
The victims had been taken to Bedford County Memorial Hospital in a private vehicle. The house is a total loss.
A nursing supervisor would not release the victims' names, but said two of them were at the hospital in stable condition. She said two others were taken by ambulance to the University of Virginia hospital.
An administrator at the Charlottesville hospital said one of the victims, Patricia Cunningham, an adult female, was in critical condition.
She suffered second- and third-degree burns. He said the hospital never received a second victim from the Bedford hospital.
Hale said a Richard Cunningham owns the house, which is about nine miles south of Bedford on Virginia 43.
He said the fire did not appear to have been deliberately set. It may have started in the kitchen or living room, which sustained the heaviest damage.
The county fire marshal is investigating.
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