february 19th, 2003, just before 9:00 a.m. winter or no, virginia was unused to this. the white blanket, a piercing sound. fire alarm. now the snow storm was the last thing on the fire chief's mind. >> the tone went off for fire of occupants possibly trapped inside. ramps everything up to full force. >> the alarm on a quiet street lined with starter homes. >> a lot of kids in the neighborhood. you are running a lot of things through your mind when you go in there? who are the occupants that you're going to have to rescue? >> the fire trucks raced to the home of a recently separated woman named ann charles and her three children. thick black smoke poured from the second story eaves. part of the roof had already burned away. >> we were concentrating on getting up the steps and getting into those rooms that we were pretty sure we had victims.