Photo by Kevin H.

Good morning, Washington. The big news overnight was the massive house fire on the 3000 block of Chain Bridge Road that first broke out before 9 p.m. Wednesday night. The large house belonged to wealthy local arts patron and former president of the D.C. Board of Education Peggy Cooper Cafritz; luckily neither Cooper Cafritz nor anyone else was home at the time of the blaze (some dogs were rescued). But it just wouldn’t be a major fire in the District if there weren’t some bureaucratic incompetence to blame for why it got out of control. By all accounts the fire began as a small one limited to one corner of the house, and if firefighters hadn’t had to spend nearly two hours looking a reliable stream of properly pressurized water, they might have been able to save most of the structure. Instead, we’ve got another Georgetown Neighborhood Library on our hands, despite WASA’s assurances that it had gotten the problem of so many out of order fire hydrants and low water pressure under control last year. Roads around the scene of the fire remain closed this morning, including Chain Bridge Road between Loughboro Road and McArthur (not the bridge itself), and Loughboro Road between University Terrace and Foxhall Road.

Council Budget Negotiations Wrap Up: After three full days of closed door revised budget sessions, it looks like the D.C. Council has come up with a final list of new taxes and cuts they will vote to pass on Friday. For more in-depth rundowns of the proposed cuts, see Tim Craig, Michael Neibauer and Mike DeBonis. The gist of it looks like this: a sales tax increase to 6 percent, plus new gasoline and cigarette taxes, and spending cuts that will affect agencies across the board, including the MPD, DCPS, DCPL, DPR, the summer jobs program, and an end to all earmarks for FY2010.

Red Line Crash Investigation Focusing on Two Circuit Modules: Two key pieces of electrical equipment are the main focus on the NTSB investigation into the June 22 Red Line Crash, the Post reports. The 30 year-old modules are components of the track circuit system, and were scheduled to be replaced this year. Other parts of the system were replaced at the crash site just five days before the crash. And the Examiner writes this morning that more than 60 track circuits have shown similar problems since Metro began checking them all in the wake of the crash.

Briefly Noted: Judge scolds D.C. for shoddy handling of evidence in the 2002 protest arrests case … Death of man found dead in a car in Alexandria ruled suspicious … Two women seriously injured in head-on crash in Beltsville.

This Day in DCist: In 2008 Mayor Fenty re-injured his foot, and in 2007, we argued that Crocs must be stopped, and given recent reports, we may soon finally get that wish.