A mansion in Fairfax County, Northern Virginia owned by the United Arab Emirates embassy in the US went up in flames on Saturday morning, according to a Washington Post report.
The report cited property records and two men who lived there in saying the home is owned by the UAE embassy.
Fairfax County fire officials told the paper that six people escaped and firefighters rescued two dogs from the tan-brick home in the 800 block of Turkey Run Road.
No one was injured.
The five-bedroom, six-bathroom house in the neighbourhood off Georgetown Pike was valued at $2.7 million in 2016, and "appeared destroyed", the report added.
Two men who lived in the home told the paper they thought the fire started in the kitchen.
The paper quoted Paul Ruwe, a deputy chief with Fairfax County Fire and Rescue, as saying that investigators had yet to determine the cause.
Ruwe added that firetrucks arrived at the neighbourhood about eight minutes after receiving a 911 call at 7:58 am.
The also paper quoted a man in the home and a neighbour who did not want to be named as saying that "it seemed to take at least 30 minutes for firefighters to spray any water on the house".
"The closest hydrant, which is the only one in the neighbourhood, is up a hill and around a bend, a five-minute walk away," the report stated.
“In the beginning, it was a small fire,” the Washington Post quoted Mohammad Al Mansouri, 42, who added that he was staying in the home on a visit from the UAE.
Al Mansouri also told the paper that the fire seemed so contained that he and others who had gotten out had time to move several cars to the other side of the driveway to leave room for firetrucks to get in.
Although the firefighters arrived quickly, Al Mansouri told the reporter, it took time for them to hook up the hoses to the far-off hydrant.
“They were all waiting for a water supply,” Al Mansouri was quoted as saying. “It was a small fire in the beginning, but after time, the fire went up, up, up” until flames were shooting out the roof.
Al Mansouri told the Post that five men were living in the home, in addition to three employees — a chef, a driver and a cleaning person — who also worked and lived there.
One of the men works for the embassy but is not the ambassador, the report added.
