June 18 2006 - At 0504 hours, City Fire Communications transmitted box alarm 81-09 for the reported house fire in the 9500 block of Liberty Street in Old Town. Engine, Wagon, Tower, and Chief 501 along with Battalion 581 hit the street with 17 Volunteers. Immediately after units made the right out of the firehouse, they could see a large column of smoke. As the companies made their way through Old Town, smoke filled the streets. Asst. Chief Lausch in Tower 501 went on the scene with heavy fire through the roof of a large two story balloon frame colonial that had been converted into a rooming house. Though the building was under renovations, it was still occupied. On arrival of the Chief, a second alarm was requested and ordered to stage on Prince William Street in the line of approach. A resident in the front yard reported that everyone was out, but Tower 501 wasted no time completing an aggressive primary search. Engine 501’s crew split and quickly placed two lines in service. Upstairs, the Engine and Tower found a large volume of fire that had took complete control of the attic and was dropping down starting to light the rooms off on the second floor. They quickly went to work opening up and extinguishing all visible fire. Second due Wagon 509 arrived and stretched a back up line to the fire floor. Wagon 501 took the third due spot and laid out from an independent hydrant to side A and ran a line to the second floor to extinguish fire in the B/C corner. The bulk of the fire was knocked in 10 minutes. All searches were negative and command began to scale the incident back.  One firefighter from Tower 501 received 2nd degree burns to both wrists and was treated on the scene. Chief 501 had the Liberty Street Command. Thanks to all of the mutual aid companies for their assistance as well as the rescue squad and firehouse auxiliary for providing refreshments to the crews. An excellent job by all operating on the fireground brought this fire under control quickly. Units from Manassas cleared a little after 0800.