Former Virginia Governor and U.S. Sen. Chuck Robb (D) and his wife Lynda are hospitalized with nonlife-threatening injuries after a fire rampaged through their mansion in Fairfax County, Virginia, on Tuesday night, according to a WTOP report.
The former governor suffered severe burns, and Lynda, the eldest daughter of former President Lyndon B. Johnson, is undergoing treatment for smoke inhalation, Lynda’s sister Luci Baines Johnson told WTOP. Tom Johnson, a former spokesman for President Johnson, told the outlet the McLean home is a total loss and added that the Robbs’ three daughters are en route to the area.
Property records put the home’s value at $3.4 million, according to WTOP.
Chuck Robb was elected Virginia’s governor in 1982 and served for four years. In 1989, he was elected to the U.S. Senate and served two terms before losing his re-election campaign in 2000 to Republican candidate George Allen.
Fairfax County first responders were alerted to the fire at the 600 block of Chain Bridge Road around 11:30 p.m., according to WTOP. Once on scene, they witnessed the fire burning through the home’s first floor. Eventually, a second alarm was called as the flames sprawled to the home’s roof.
“It was a very large house and a significant portion of the house was engulfed in flames,” Bill Delaney, a spokesman with the Fairfax County Fire Department, said per the Washington Post.
Some 60 firefighters from Fairfax, Arlington, and Montgomery counties worked for over an hour-and-a-half to get control of the blaze, the Post reported.
Fairfax County Fire and Rescue tweeted that it could take days to weeks to determine the cause, due to the fire’s severity. Delaney told the Washington Post that investigators had not yet discovered signs of foul play.
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