The massive blast shattered windows, was heard for miles, and attracted the attention of top Virginia officials as far away as Richmond.
The blast was a “major explosion” and “very very scary,” U.S. Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.) said in a message on X, formerly Twitter.
A neighbor who witnessed it from nearby called it an “enormous explosion” that shook her house, littered it with broken glass, and left her shaken. “It took me like an hour to stop quivering,” she said.
Arlington County Police spokeswoman Ashley Savage that police received a call about 4:45 p.m. Monday about a flare gun being fired at a home on the 800 block of Burlington Street. Video posted online showed one or two orange flares, of the sort used to summon help or signal an emergency, arcing up into the air around dusk, before settling to the ground.
After that, police tried to execute a search warrant at the house related to the flare gun discharge, Savage said. She said that the person inside declined to cooperate, and discharged the flare gun several more times.
Neighbors were evacuated as a precaution, said Capt. Nate Hiner of the Arlington County Fire Department. Then, after 8 p.m., the house exploded.
The neighbor who described the explosion said police had spent a long time trying to get the occupant of the house to emerge. They kept saying “come out,” the neighbor said.
She said she heard a voice from inside the house asking to “let me go.” That account could not be confirmed by police. The neighbor spoke on the condition of anonymity because of concerns about privacy and her own safety.
Henry McFarland, 72, said he heard a boom that resembled a thunderclap about 8 p.m. He felt his house, which sits about half a mile from the site of the explosion, shake for about one second.
McFarland, president of the Bluemont Civic Association — an Arlington organization that encompasses streets including North Burlington — peered out a window in his home, checking for signs of what had happened. It wasn’t until he walked toward the end of his street, where several neighbors had gathered, that he saw red and orange flames in the distance, he said.
McFarland, who has lived in the area for more than 30 years, said that he couldn’t recall another explosion within the Bluemont Civic Association’s boundaries.
“We will look forward to finding out what happened, what lessons we may possibly learn from this,” he said.
Authorities declared the fire under control late Monday.
The flame and the smoke could be seen throughout Arlington and even in D.C. neighborhoods far from the blast site. An aide to Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) said he was “closely monitoring the situation.”
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