An intense, wind-whipped fire that witnesses said started in a construction Dumpster quickly destroyed a five-story apartment building and spread to nearly 20 other structures across several blocks in downtown Richmond yesterday.
One death was attributed to the fire.
Dominion Virginia Power cut off electricity as a precaution as the wind-whipped fire raced across West Broad Street to nearby neighborhoods. One woman lost power to her oxygen supply, and she later died after she was taken to VCU Medical Center.
Thick, black smoke billowed from buildings on both sides of Broad where it intersects with Goshen Street. Embers from the three-alarm fire that started about 12:30 p.m. in the apartment building at 933 W. Broad St. traveled across Broad and landed on the roofs of nearby buildings.
The apartment building, which was being constructed by Ramz LLC of Pittsburgh, was to open in August and was intended to house 172 Virginia Commonwealth University students. It was a private development not owned by VCU.
The fire caused millions of dollars in damage to the building, which was estimated to cost $10 million when completed, university officials said.
At the height of the fire, flames shot through the huge plume of billowing smoke. One witness, Tom Petzwinkler, 29, was sweating profusely as he walked away from the fire, where he was shooting photos for his thesis paper.
"It was like looking into the gaping maw of hell," he said. "It was the most horrible and amazing thing I've seen."
"It's just pandemonium," said David Alley, a building inspector with the city, who was helping with crowd control near the burning buildings. "The flames just kept spreading."
He recalled hearing several explosions, like transformers blowing.
Nearby student dormitories that were evacuated at the height of the fire were reopened later yesterday.
As the flames rolled north from Broad Street, public safety officials evacuated 50 homes in the Carver area.
By 3 p.m., nine homes had been damaged or destroyed - six on Clay Street, two on Marshall Street and one on Leigh Street.
One of those homes, in the 1000 block of West Clay Street, belonged to Mac McKinnon.
He sat on a stoop across the street and wept as his house and everything but the clothes he was wearing were destroyed.
"It took everything, everything I own," he said.
His house caught on fire when it was hit by large chunks of burning insulation.
Allan Kates walked through Carver during the fire carrying a fist-sized hunk of cinder as a memento.
"It's all over," the Chesterfield County resident said of the cinder.
Kates traveled from his office in Willow Lawn to witness the fire. During the fire, winds deposited cinders as far away as the north side of West Leigh Street.
Carver resident Toma Long stepped outside her house to see what was going on after she heard what she thought were explosions.
"There were a whole lot of pops and bangs and explosions," she said as firefighters tried desperately to stop a blaze in a home across the street. "It was like boom, boom back to back."
Though damage to property was extensive - authorities said 19 buildings and 20 cars were burned - few people were injured.
Two firefighters were taken to nearby hospitals, one for chest pains and the other for a leg injury.
A Richmond firefighter and a VCU parking deck employee were treated for smoke inhalation at the scene.
A Carver Elementary teacher was taken by ambulance to Retreat Hospital and treated for an asthma attack that was aggravated by inhaling smoke.
In addition to the buildings, the fire damaged at least 20 cars and a firetruck, said Assistant Fire Marshal Keith Vida.
Mayor Rudolph C. McCollum said at a news conference that at least 60 firefighters, 38 Richmond police officers and 17 VCU police officers were at the scene.
The city evacuated the Carver School and the Governor's School.
City Councilman William J. Pantele, who represents the area where the blaze occurred, said the fire was the worst in recent memory.
"It's just terrible to see these areas that have enjoyed such remarkable success and progress in flames," he said. "It's heartbreaking."
Robby Hunt, a construction worker with S.W. Rodgers, was about 15 feet from the Dumpster when the fire started. The trash chute went from the fifth floor, at the top of the building, to the ground.
He said the Dumpster was full and so was the chute. "We saw the chute on fire and got the hell out. . . . In a matter of five minutes the whole thing went up."
He stood on Grace Street, upwind from the fire at about 1 p.m. and said, "Seven, eight months of work down the drain. It's demo time now, man."
The building was burned down to its block foundation within a half hour of when the fire started.
Travis Little, an electrical worker with M&E Contractors, was on the top floor when the fire started. "A guy on the phone said there's a fire in the building and we looked at him and laughed," he said. But the guy wasn't kidding.
Little and his fellow workers were on the east end of the building, where a stairway to the ground floor had been completed only yesterday. Without it, they would have had to go down ladders.
"The place went up like a barbecue," said Tim Williams, another construction worker.
Little said that as his crew got out of the building, his foreman "grabbed an air horn and signaled to let everybody know what was going on."
By 1:45 p.m. the fire had leapt over the four-lane Broad Street, and two buildings between the Arts Center and Goshen Street had flashed over. The fire quickly burned through to the alley separating Broad Street and Marshall Street. Police by then had already evacuated the buildings on both sides of Marshall Street at Goshen.
Meanwhile, helicopters hovered and thousands of people, many armed with cell phones, surrounded the firefighters battling the flames, smoke and heat.
Where there wasn't damage, there was upheaval.
Outside the Hyperlink Cafe at 814 W. Grace St., just south of the fire, drinks were sold for $1, about half the usual price. The seven-week-old restaurant/Internet cafe lost power and was able to sell only beverages and cold sandwiches.
"The manager at Pizza Hut told me the building was on fire, and when I went outside, the whole structure had just lit up," said David Lambert, owner of the cafe.
"By the grace of God, the winds were blowing north."
By midafternoon, two Hyperlink employees wheeled a bucket of sodas and water down Grace Street, calling out, "Cold drinks, one dollar. We bring it to you!"
A block west of Hyperlink, Tony Flores, manager of Vito's Pizza and Italian Restaurant, threw up his hands and shook his head. Flores' restaurant was also without power.
"Fridays are a busy, busy day for us," he said. "We've lost lots of customers."
Clumps of students milled around Grace Street, many armed with video and digital cameras. Some sat on apartment rooftops, others entertained themselves with acoustic guitars and bongos and still more griped about the view.
"Oh, man, how did they get up there?" lamented one student, staring up at a group of spectators on the top floor of the VCU parking deck.
Paul Tuttle, a Richmond police officer, dodged the puddles on Marshall Street, a day of firefighting near an end.
Earlier, he'd tried to make his way east on Broad Street just after the fire broke. He got no farther than Lombardy. The view was something he'll never forget.
"It was nothing but black and orange as far as you could see from the ground up," he said.
And he'll always marvel that the fire didn't consume most of downtown Richmond.
Asked what stopped that from happening, his eyes sharpened, and he said:
"The finger of God."
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