Dupont Rowhouse Ablaze: An 18th Street NW rowhouse went up in flames yesterday. No one was hurt, but flames from the building’s third floor shot up “high enough to be seen several blocks away,” the Post reports.

Cardinal Dies: Cardinal James Hickey died at his Northeast nursing home at the age of 84. Hickey led the Washington archdiocese for 20 years and “created the metropolitan area’s most extensive nongovernmental network of social services, an achievement widely recognized as his most important legacy,” the Post’s obituary says.

Man Saves Family: A man who suspected that his family was suffering from carbon monoxide poisoning has been credited with saving their lives, WTOP reports.

Campaigns Get Lots of Cash from Area: The W.Times reports that residents in Virginia, the District and Maryland pumped 2004 presidential campaigns with $52.6 million. The majority of that — $31.9 million — went to Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry.

Meanwhile in Virginia: A quick rundown from the Post … a 23-year-old man was shot by police in North Arlington; five people were either “stabbed or slashed” at a restaurant on Richmond Highway in Fairfax County. It was “unclear whether the wounds were inflicted by a knife or a machete.”; a Herndon apartment building was evacuated after a car hit a gas meter causing a leak.