An early morning house fire at 40 Randolph Terrace in southern Cumberland County killed two on Wednesday, January 2, according to Cumberland Sheriff Darrell Hodges.

Sheriff Hodges reported that a neighbor saw the fire and called it in. A call went out to local volunteer fire departments at 4:33 a.m.

Deputy Chief Terry Spillman of the Randolph Volunteer Fire Department stated that he was in the first unit to arrive, about ten minutes later. At that point, the roof of the cinder block structure had already been burned through and had caved in, according to Spillman. Randolph responded with a total of three units. Cumberland and Farmville Fire Departments also responded with two units each.

According to Sheriff Hodges, the bodies have been sent to the medical examiner for positive identification because they were too difficult to identify on-site due to the amount of damage done to them by the high heat of the fire. They had not yet been positively identified at the time of this report.

The state police are conducting the arson investigation, “just to check. Not because we suspect arson, we just want to rule everything out,” said Sheriff Hodges. The Cumberland Sheriff's Department is completing the initial and primary investigation, according to Sheriff Hodges.