Report: Mother Died Trying to Rescue Daughter from Fire

We’re learning more about the two Arlington residents who died in a house fire in the Columbia Forest neighborhood early Tuesday morning.

TV stations, including NBC 4 and Fox 5, are reporting that the victims were Mary Barkes and her 8-year-old daughter, Emily.

According to Fox 5, Mary’s husband, Bill, managed to escape the blaze in nothing but his boxer shorts, then used a ladder to save his 11-year-old daughter, Sarah. He was unable to go back into the house due to the intensity of the flames.

Mary, meanwhile, was the first one out of the home, according to NBC 4. She ran back in the home to try to save Emily, but was overcome by fire and smoke. It took firefighters 15 minutes of fighting the flames before they were able to enter the home and find their bodies.

The survivors, Bill and Sarah, were transported to local hospitals for smoke inhalation and burns and are expected to recover.

There were no working fire detectors in the home, according to an Arlington County Fire Department spokesman. The investigation into the cause is expected to take a number of weeks.