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Community Mourns Fire Victims

posted 11:14 pm Sun April 27, 2008 - Campbell Co.,VA

reporter: Manuel Quinones posted by: Amy Hultstrand

tags: fire • blaze • fatal

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Campbell County investigators will be back on the scene of a house fire that killed two people on Monday. Police say Joseph Toms and his wife Linda Ruth Toms -- both in their fifties -- were inside when their house burned down yesterday morning. It's left a neighborhood in shock. There's barely anything left.

Aubrey West, Friend and Neighbor - "You can't hardly believe it."

The victims' family is still in shock. Neighbors describe the couple as good friends.

West - "He comes up here sometimes three four times a day. We would talk, do things together. Work on things. I just cannot imagine what happen. Really a tragic thing."

Firefighters say they responded quickly but didn't find out until it was too late.

Chief John Tucker, Altavista Fire - "The house was about 2 thousand square feet and it was almost completely gone by the time we got the call."

As the fire burned, firefighters and loved ones were hoping the couple wasn't home, but they were. The mission soon turned to recovering their bodies.

Tucker - "Trying to cool the embers of the house so we could go in. We brought a cadaver dog."

West says Joseph Toms had been in the military and worked for the government.

West - "He always had a real pretty garden. Straight rows. Not a weed on them. That's the way he was."

He says Linda used to be a police officer.

West - "Real quiet but real nice."

Now he's mourning the couple he had over for lunch just last week and wondering what could have happened. Police and firefighters tell us it took a while to notify family members about the incident because many are out of state. Officials will resume their investigation tomorrow, to try and find out what started the blaze.

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