Two dead after New Year’s Eve house fire in Chesterfield

CHESTERFIELD, Va. (WRIC) -- Two people are dead after a house fire on New Year’s Eve in Chesterfield.

Fire crews responded to a home on Featherstone Court, just off Huguenot Road, shortly before midnight.

Flames were seen coming from the home as firefighters worked to break through a second-story window to reach those trapped inside.

Officials said two adults were pulled from the home and taken to a nearby hospital, where they later died.

Jerome Jeter, a neighbor from across the street, said he was outside waiting for family members when he heard loud booms and saw the fire rapidly growing. 

“I called my fiancé; she called the fire department. I went running, knocking on that door," Jeter said. "The people next door were already out. I was just trying to wake the neighborhood up on the situation." 

Family members of the victims, who have asked to remain anonymous, said they were devastated by the loss.

According to the family, relatives were celebrating New Year’s Eve together at home earlier that day but had left nearly two hours before the fire started.

“I always see them out there planting flowers and stuff like that, you know, I’d speak to them and they’d speak,” said Jeter. “For that to happen on the first day of the year, that was a way for me to calm down, I know that much.” 

This marks the second deadly fire on Featherstone Court in the past two years. In December 2023, a man was killed in a house fire that began in a bedroom on the 11600 block of the street, which is two houses down from where this latest fire occurred.

The cause of the New Year’s Eve fire remains under investigation.