(Updated at 3:55 p.m.) Firefighters battled a major, two-alarm house fire on Malta Lane in McLean this afternoon.

The fire broke out shortly after 1:30 p.m. on the 6600 block of Malta Lane, a narrow no-outlet street on the other side of Georgetown Pike from Langley High School. Firefighters from Fairfax County, Arlington County and Montgomery County were dispatched to the scene.

Initial reports suggest arriving units found heavy fire coming from the second floor of a large home, but struggled to find sufficient water pressure from hydrants in the area to battle the flames. Water tankers were subsequently dispatched to assist.

A partial collapse of the structure was reported, according to the Fairfax County Fire Department. The unsafe conditions delayed the search for victims inside the house, but all occupants have since been accounted for.

As of 2:45 p.m., most of the fire was out but firefighters were still trying to extinguish hot spots. The home has suffered “significant damage,” according to those on scene. Thus far, no injuries have been reported.

A fireground commander said he expects firefighters to remain on scene “for an extended period of time.” The county fire marshal’s office will be investigating the cause of the blaze.

https://twitter.com/LincolnACFD/status/1081267605040783361

Update 6600 block of Malta Lane: 2nd alarm requested for alternate water supply. Large house, heavy fire throughout, with exposures. Multiple lines stretched operating. Reported partial collapse #fcfrd pic.twitter.com/6mNQRHweUs

— Fairfax County Fire/Rescue (@ffxfirerescue) January 4, 2019

Thanks to @ArlingtonVaFD and @mcfrs for assistance on house fire on Malta Lane in McLean. #teamwork #fcfrd #news pic.twitter.com/ISLulfHz5R

— Fairfax County Fire/Rescue (@ffxfirerescue) January 4, 2019

Map via Google Maps

Tysons Agenda is a listing of interesting events for the week ahead in the Tysons area.

We’ve scoured the web for events of note in Tysons, Vienna, Merrifield and McLean. Know of any we’ve missed? Tell us!

Saturday, Jan. 5

Community Open House
McLean Community Center (1234 Ingleside Ave)
Time: 11 a.m-2 p.m.

The newly renovated McLean Community Center will be hosting an open house with a self-guided tour. The open house will allow visitors to peek at The Alden theater and learn about upcoming events in 2019.

Resolution Jam
The Palladium (1524 Spring Hill Road)
Time: 8 p.m.-2 a.m.

The Palladium nightclub is hosting a New Year’s themed “Resolutions” party, with a live band and DJ’s throughout the night on two floors of the club. Tickets to the party are $20.

Sunday, Jan. 6

Lil’ Kickers DMV Open House
Sport & Health McLean (1800 Old Meadow Rd)
Time: 9:15-10:05 a.m.

Lil’ Kickers invites prospective members to join the group for an open house. The event will feature free soccer activities and learn more about the area’s newest soccer program for kids from 18 months to 8 years old.

Road to Richmond Legislative Brunch
Westwood Country Club (800 Maple Ave E)
Time: 11 a.m.

Attendees at the Fairfax County Democratic Committee’s legislative brunch will hear from state and local Democratic leaders about the upcoming legislative session. Individual tickets are $50.

The Fellowship Book Club: Sci-Fi & Fantasy
Bards Alley (110 Church Street NW)
Time: 4-5 p.m.

As the new year starts, the Bards Alley book club will move into a new genre: sci-fi/fantasy. The group meets every Sunday at the Bards Alley book store.

Jammin’ Java Mid-Atlantic Battle
Jammin’ Java (227 Maple Ave E)
Time: 6 p.m.

Eight bands will compete on Sunday to win a $2,000 cash, studio time with Bias Studios, and a headline show at Jammin Java.

Don’t have any New Year’s Eve plans yet? Tysons Reporter has you covered. Here’s some events around the Tysons area to help you ring in 2019 on Monday.

NYE 2019: Bollywood Night Theme
American Tandoor (7943 Tysons Corner Center)
Time: 9 p.m.-2 a.m.

This New Year’s event will feature live music, a full buffet, open bar, party favors and photobooths. Tickets are $85 and available by calling 571-633-1820.

New Years Eve 2019
Greenhouse Bistro (2070 Chainbridge Rd)
Time: 5 p.m.-2 a.m.

The Greenhouse Bistro will host a black and gold-themed New Year’s Eve party with complimentary valet and midnight champagne toast. Tickets are $40.

New Year’s Masquerade Ball
Tysons Biergarten (8346 Leesburg Pike)
Time: 7 p.m.-2 a.m.

The Biergarten will host a masquerade party on New Year’s Eve with live music, a champagne toast and a balloon drop. Tickets are $20.

New Years Eve at The Palladium
The Palladium (1524 Spring Hill Road)
Time: 8 p.m.-2:30 a.m.

Tysons’ latest salsa/bachata nightclub will host a champagne toast and party favors New Year’s event. General admission is $20, or $130 for two tickets with a reserved table and a full dinner.

NYE Masquerade at Blackfinn
Blackfinn Ameripub (2750 Gallows Road)
Time: 9 p.m.-2 a.m.

Blackfinn in Merrifield is hosting a masquerade party with $15 admission (if purchased in advance) which includes a champagne toast and appetizers. A $200 VIP ticket comes with a private dining room for six guests.

Back to the 90’s New Year’s Eve Party
Jammin’ Java (227 Maple Ave E)
Time: 8 p.m.

While most of the parties around the area are looking forward to 2019, Jammin’ Java in Vienna is winding back the clock to the 90’s, complete with a Weezer tribute band. General admission is $20.

Photo via Jammin’ Java

Fairfax County Police are reminding residents to lock their doors after a wave of burglaries hit the McLean, Reston, and Fair Oaks Districts.

“The burglaries have primarily been during the early afternoon and evening hours,” FCPD said in a press release. “The majority of victims have been of Asian or Middle Eastern descent. Detectives are investigating whether all of these incidents are connected and whether other burglaries from across Fairfax County are related.”

At least 13 burglaries have taken place in Fairfax over the last two months at the following residences:

• 5200 block of Knight Arch Circle, Fairfax
• 11800 block of Robertson Farm Circle, Fairfax
• 11800 block of Robertson Farm Circle, Fairfax
• 11800 block of Robertson Farm Circle, Fairfax
• 4800 block of Annamohr Drive, Fairfax
• 11300 block of Andrew Lane, Fairfax
• 11300 block of Andrew Lane, Fairfax
• 1100 block of Mountain Hope Court, Great Falls
• 200 block of Golden Woods Court, Great Falls
• 1100 block of Lees Meadow Court, Great Falls
• 1200 block of Raymond Avenue, McLean
• 3500 block of Saint Augustin Lane, Oakton
• 9600 block of Maymont Drive, Vienna

“We are also working alongside the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office and Manassas City Police Department who are investigating similar cases,” FCPD said. “Please be on the lookout for suspicious people, cars and noises. Do not hesitate to call our non-emergency number, 703-691-2131, to report suspicious activity or 911 for an emergency.”

In the meantime, FCPD released a list of tips to help people protect their homes from burglary:

• Keep all doors and windows closed and locked.
• Secure sliding glass doors by placing a metal rod or a wooden dowel rod in the track.
• Lock the door to an attached garage.
• Make your residence appear occupied, even when no one is home, to help deter criminals.
• Keep the perimeter of your home well lit.
• Have a trusted neighbor collect mail and newspapers while you are away.
• Keep landscaping trimmed away from entrances and walkways.
• Organize or join a Neighborhood Watch program.
• Get a free home security check from a Crime Prevention Officer.
• Keep an inventory of your property.
• Store ladders, tools and any other outside objects in a locked shed or garage.
• Make sure the home’s address is visible for police, firemen and paramedics.

Even with the National Park Service coming to change the locks in a few hours, Anna Eberly can’t resist a few last lessons about colonial life.

She holds up one of the hand-woven baskets before it gets stuffed into a plastic bag. Unlike some of the other baskets woven from grass, Eberly says this one is woven from thin wooden shavings, making it incredibly resilient to everything except being dropped while carrying a heavy load.

After 46 years of volunteering at the farm, lessons like that come naturally to Eberly. But today (Friday) is the last day she’ll teach them at the farm. After one year of battling with the NPS over control of the farm, the Friends of Claude Moore Colonial Farm, which has maintained the farm since 1981, rejected an agreement that would have required greater levels of administrative and financial oversight.

Elliott Curzen, the director of Claude Moore Colonial Farm, said the farm equipment and animals are being moved off-site. Eberly said they are going to her home out in Loudoun County, where there are two acres of pasture.

“It’s disappointing we couldn’t come to a compromise,” said Curzen. “The locks change tomorrow, or tonight, and we have until Jan. 20 to keep moving property off-site.”

There was plenty of finger-pointing to go around throughout the debate over what should happen with the farm. The conflict started with a 2015 report questioning the farm’s financial relationships and demanding more oversight into what is bought and sold at the farm in markets, a mainstay of the farm events. Even a joint letter from Virginia Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine to the NPS wasn’t able to stave off the closure.

The NPS says the regulations are the same as would be imposed on any other national park. But Eberly said the new regulations were unfair, given that the park funds itself through the fairs rather than from federal funding.

The NPS says it has no plans to sell or develop the land, but in 2019 there will be community discussions about what should happen to the site next.

On the farm’s last day, there was some bitterness from volunteers helping to pack up. Eberly noted that the cats running around as people worked would be going back to her property.

“Taking care of them is my job,” said one volunteer walking past, before amending, “well, ‘was’ my job.”

“I won’t miss dealing with the National Park Service,” said Eberly. “I’ll miss the volunteers, but this is just a place. It’s a former landfill, with terrible soil. It’s not a very good farm. We have to import everything here from Loudoun.”

But it was also a living history museum to what life was like for the average colonial farmer in the 18th century. Curzen said while it was around, it was a unique look into a piece of local history, and one that will be gone by the end of the day.

A woman was pinned between a minivan and a house after an unusual accident in McLean.

The crash happened in the driveway of the home on the 6800 block of Dean Drive, near Westmoreland Street, shortly before 1 p.m. Firefighters from Fairfax and Arlington counties used heavy equipment to free the woman, who suffered non-life-threatening injuries.

It was not immediately clear to rescuers how the crash happened, nor was it clear whether the woman had been driving the van or was simply standing next to it when it pinned her against the wall.

“It was probably just one of those weird things where something happened and she was stuck,” one first responder said.

The woman was transported via ambulance to Inova Fairfax Hospital.

During the rescue operation, a passerby stopped to see what was going on and remark on the number of emergency vehicles on the street.

“There was more response for this than for the double homicide here a few years ago,” she said.

The plan for downtown McLean will break it into three zones, but local residents want to make sure it doesn’t become a second version of Tysons.

After a year of meetings with the community, contractor Streetsense presented its final vision for the McLean Community Business Center (CBC) last night (Monday) in Longfellow Middle School.

In Streetsense’s final proposal, the McLean CBC would be broken into three categories: center, general, and edge.

Colin Greene, Director of Planning at Streetsense, said the center zone could be occupied by either retail or residential spaces with a few offices. Buildings in this area would generally go up to seven stories, though Greene said those could be up to ten stories if they offer open space benefits.

In the general zone, Greene said the building heights could go up to five stories tall, with an emphasis on scaling development down as it approaches the edge zone, which would primarily consist of two or three story residential buildings.

“We expect and recommend that that [scale of residential development] continues,” said Greene. “Redevelopment would need to be in-kind and similar in scale and size.”

The map at the meeting showed the center zone in dark purple, with the general and edge zones in lighter shades.

The new plan puts McLean’s downtown center at the corner of Elm Street and Beverly Road, a corner whose most notable occupant today is the “Wok & Roll” Chinese restaurant. But the proposal would see the corner eventually developed with towering new residential and office buildings with retail frontage.

This new plan would also require substantial infrastructure improvements, including road improvements for Elm Street and Beverly Road and converting the nearby Center Street into a pedestrian avenue.

Several of those in attendance at the meeting had concerns about the level of density in the new downtown McLean, particularly with the proposal of a seven or ten-story office building in the heart of the CBC. More than one McLean local said they didn’t want to see the downtown turned into another Tysons.

Robert Moll, a McLean resident, said he looked at the sudden expansion of development in downtown Bethesda, Maryland, and said he didn’t want to see this happen to McLean.

“The CBC is not going to compete with Tysons for office space,” Greene said. “There is a low need for offices [here]. We don’t foresee a long or deep demand for office use.”

Green said most of the office space proposed for downtown McLean would be replacing existing, aging office buildings rather than adding new office capacity.

One local resident said that many of his neighbors and other members of the community would have liked an option for things to remain the same in McLean rather than see any new development, but many in the audience vocally opposed this idea.

“I’m out and about all the time and I get a lot of feedback on when I’m not getting something done,” said Supervisor John Foust. “One [bit of] feedback I get a lot is that we’re not doing enough to make McLean a place people can come together. That’s what they tell me they want in McLean. It’s not a scientific survey, but there’s support for doing something good but not overboard.”

After the presentation, those in attendance browsed the final plan spread across several boards in the back of the room.

“There are some real positive things here,” said Rob Jackson, chair of the McLean Citizens Association’s planning and zoning committee and a member of the CBC task force. “I like the focus on Elm Street and Beverly Road and putting the focus there. But I still have questions about where cars are going to park when people come for this pedestrian area.”

Walkability, even since the early meetings, was one of the most talked about topics for McLean residents at the CBC meetings.

“We enjoy walking everywhere,” said Frank Peterson, a local resident, “so we fully support the comment that this effort should integrate pedestrian-friendly ways to get around.”

Foust said working through the parking and pedestrian issues related to the McLean CBC study are going to be a priority as committees begin to meet in January to start looking at how to turn this vision plan into a reality.

Tysons Agenda is a listing of interesting events for the week ahead in the Tysons area.

We’ve scoured the web for events of note in Tysons, Vienna, Merrifield and McLean. Know of any we’ve missed? Tell us!

Today, Dec. 17

Free Movie Screening: Bumblebee
AMC Tysons Corner (7850 Tysons Corner)
Time: 6:30-9 p.m.

ThingstodoDC.com is hosting a free screening of the new movie Bumblebee, the latest in the long-running Transformers series. Reviews have been surprisingly positive so far.

Final Meeting – Mclean MRC
Longfellow Middle (2000 Westmoreland St)
Time: 7-9 p.m.

This will be the final vision plan presentation discussing plans to renovate downtown McLean, which currently include turning a street into a pedestrian avenue and adding a new roundabout.

Tuesday, Dec. 18

In the Mix: NOVA Holiday Mixer
Tower Club (8000 Towers Crescent Drive)
Time: 5:30-7:30 p.m.

A networking event at the Tower Club in Tysons aims to bring Northern Virginia community members together to form new career and business connections to start 2019 with. Tickets are complimentary for Tower Club members or $10 for guests.

Cheesetique Trivia Night
Cheesetique (2985 District Ave)
Time: 7-9 p.m.

A trivia night in the Mosaic District held alongside an extended happy hour running until 9 p.m.

Wednesday, Dec. 19

Ugly Christmas Sweater Workout
CrossFit Route 7 (8504 Tyco Road)
Time: 6 a.m.-9 p.m.

The Tysons CrossFit studio is hosting an all-day ugliest Christmas sweater or t-shirt contest, culminating with a class photo to commemorate a day of bad taste.

Second Story Toy Drive
Tysons Biergarten (8346 Leesburg Pike)
Time: 4-6 p.m.

The Biergarten will host its third annual toy drive for Second Story, a nonprofit youth shelter in Vienna. New or gently used toys can be brought to the Biergarten at a donation bin near the front door.

Thursday, Dec. 20

Devils Backbone Tap Takeover
Blackfinn Ameripub – Merrifield (2750 Gallows Rd)
Time: 5-7 p.m.

The Virginia-based Devils Backbone Brewing Company will take over the bar with the beers like their Vienna Lager or Gran-cose available on tap.

Nine months after morning prayer service was cancelled, the McLean Islamic Center (MIC) won approval from the Fairfax County Board of Zoning Appeals last week for extended hours and the cap on worshippers was removed.

Originally, the MIC was restricted to ten worshippers in attendance at prayers before 9 a.m. An anonymous complaint earlier this year led to an inspection that found the facility in violation of that cap.

The changing regulations now base attendance on the the 92 parking spaces available in the lot, which were not completed when the first regulations were implemented. The center can also offer morning prayers between 4-9 a.m.

“We were very excited that the county was able to come to the decision that they were on Wednesday,” said Sultan Chaudhry, president of the MIC Board of Directors. “This was something that our congregation had been looking forward to for more than nine months now. We’re happy that they were able to look at all of the data and analysis from county staff and come to a decision that allows us to freely practice our religion in Fairfax County.”

Chaudhry said MIC is committed to being respectful and courteous to the neighboring Carrington subdivision, who during the Board of Zoning Appeals meeting reiterated concerns about early morning noise from the center, particularly from cars locking and unlocking in early hours.

According to Chaudhry, morning prayer service resumed the day after approval was granted.

“It was great,” said Chaudhry. “We had about 20 vehicles come and about the same number of worshippers. There was a feeling of energy and relief, and there was a feeling of gratefulness to god, to the county, and to our interfaith partners and supporters that stood with us.”

Photo via Facebook

It’s mid-December and the Holiday events season is in full swing around Tysons.

In Vienna, the Volunteer Fire Department will host its annual All You Can Eat Pancake Breakfast tomorrow, Saturday, at 400 Center St. S. From 8 a.m.-12 p.m., the department will be serving pancakes, sausage, bacon, juice, and coffee. At 9:30 a.m., Santa Claus will arrive to green children or adults at the breakfast, and is scheduled to stay until 11 a.m.

The Fairfax County Sheriff’s Office will be on hand to provide a free photo of your child and take a set of fingerprints using clean, inkless technology to help authorities in missing child situations.

Tours of the fire equipment at the station will be held at 9, 10, and 11 a.m.

But for the pancake averse, there’s plenty more to do across Tysons, including a live Christmas event featuring Chewie the camel.

Tonight (Dec. 14)

• 70’s Disco & Funk Holiday Party (8 p.m.) — Jammin Java at 227 Maple Ave E. in Vienna is hosting a 70’s themed party with hits from James Brown, Donna Summer, the Jackson Five and more. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. for dinner and drinks, with prizes awarded for best 70’s holiday-inspired outfit. The dance party starts at 8 p.m.
• 80’s Christmas Party (8 p.m.-2 a.m.) — The Palladium’s weekly 80’s party turned holiday themed tonight at 1524 Spring Hill Road. Attendees must be 21 to enter, but tickets reserved in advance are cover-free.

Tomorrow (Dec. 15)

• Holiday Jam at Records and Rarities (2-8 p.m.) — The record shop in the Tysons Corner Center mall is hosting a holiday themed party featuring a lineup of live DJs.
• 2nd Annual Festivus Celebration (8 p.m.-2 a.m.) — The Tysons Biergarten at 8346 Leesburg Pike is throwing a Festivus celebration. The party includes a “re-gifting” table, where unwanted gifts can be dropped off and donated to charity.

Sunday (Dec. 16)

• Live Nativity (8:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.) — The McLean Presbyterian Church at 1020 Balls Hill Road is hosting a live nativity scene featuring real animals, like Chewie the camel, that children can pet.
• Orangetheory Fitness Tysons Grand Opening (9 a.m.-5 p.m.) — Tysons’ newest workout studio will host a grand opening celebration at its 1430 Spring Hill Road location. The event will include food, drinks, music, and a raffle.

Photo via Facebook