An urban forester and arborist who worked for Fairfax County was among the two people who died earlier this month in a house fire in the Herndon area.
Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Chairman Jeff McKay identified Toni Woods and her husband as the victims of the Nov. 6 fire when the board convened on Tuesday (Nov. 18) for its only November meeting.
Firefighters responded to the single-family house in the 1500 block of Shellbark Place around 7:20 a.m. for the fire, which took approximately two hours to extinguish. The couple was found deceased in the home during a search.
County property records indicate that Woods and her husband, George Clausen, had owned the Shellbark Place house since August 1993. According to NBC4, neighbors described them as “very pleasant” but reserved, largely keeping to themselves.
To Fairfax County workers, however, Woods “was known for her warmth, humor and compassion,” McKay said when announcing her passing.
“Toni’s lifelong passion for trees, nature and environment shaped her career and made a lasting difference throughout Fairfax County,” McKay said. “Toni helped preserve countless trees and strengthen the county’s commitment to environmental stewardship. Her work and example inspired her colleagues and elevated the standards of tree preservation across our entire region.”
Woods worked in the urban forest conservation branch of Fairfax County Land Development Services and had been certified as an arborist by the International Society of Arboriculture since 2012, according to the Potowmack chapter of the Virginia Native Plant Society.
On top of her day-to-day work for the county, Woods appears to have regularly volunteered her time to lead tree walks at local parks for members of the public. In a recap of a June 2024 walk at Meadowlark Botanical Gardens in Wolf Trap, Fairfax Tree Stewards Vice President Jeanne Kadet observed that, given her name, Woods seemed “destined to be a forester.”
As of press time, the cause of the house fire remains unknown, as an investigation is still underway, a Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department spokesperson says.
McKay encouraged the county’s other supervisors to “join me in offering our thoughts and prayers to the Woods family as they navigate this process and tragic event.”
“When you make these announcements and they involve county employees, it’s particularly tough for all of our county workforce,” he added.
