Firefighters remain at the scene of a massive fire that destroyed several buildings on the former campus of Virginia Intermont College.
During the operation, a firefighter who was experiencing chest pains was transported to a hospital, Bristol Fire Chief Mike Armstrong told WJHL.
There was no word on the firefighter's condition.
“We are not going to send anybody in these buildings. They are supposed to be vacant. If somebody is in this building right now, they’re probably a fatality. The fire was well involved on our arrival. So it was very far gone before we even got here. And it quickly spread due to the old construction and the furnishings in the building, the paper and the books and stuff like that,” Armstrong said.
Friday morning's blaze is not the first time a fire has broken out on the closed campus.
Following a fire in mid-November, Armstrong told WJHL that the site was "dangerous" and said his crews prioritized fighting fires without stepping foot inside the aging buildings.
"The floors are rotten, the windows are broken out, the roofs are rotten. And it’s just not safe to be in there with all the debris, the broken glass. I can tell you within the last 12 months, we’ve had multiple fires up here."
