SIX-SQUARE BLOCKS ON FIRE DOWNTOWN RICHMOND, VA.

Fox News

[ArrogantBustard]

How close is close?

Star is the airport.

[philetus]

[Dr. Eckleburg]

Thanks. Fox just said the pilot ejected while the jet was still on the runway. Jet continued on down the runway and crashed. Pilot okay. Plane destroyed.

Haven't heard one like that before.

[HenryLeeII]

Thank you, folks, for the update!

[SarahW]

I'm a Richmonder. Been watching the local coverage...

The initial explosion, by the accounts I've heard on the news, was in the new building under construction directly across the street from the VCU Fine Arts building.

There is now a thirty-foot hole in the roof of the fine arts building, but that's from where the roof ignited from falling embers that the wind carried and dropped onto all the nearby buildings upwind.

I doubt art supplies had anything to do with the explosion, and certainly not those stored in the fine arts building.

No one is speculating on the news, but I will. The new building was in the process of being trimmed out today.

If it wasn't a generator accident, I bet you anything some stupid goombah (and richmond construction workers are the stupidest on the planet) had a lit cigarette around inflammable adhesives.

[SarahW]

There was an explosion in a building in the last stages of construction - workers were trimming it out.

Note the time of the fire - lunchtime. Richmond construction workers, the kind who do trim-out, are notoriously dim-witted and they all, to a man, smoke.

If I had to predict the cause of the fire, one of these idiots have a smoke on his lunch, managed to ignite adhesives being use to trim out the building.

It's gorgeous here today, but very breezy. Good conditions and great neigborhood for any fire that wants to grow quickly -

Big soccer-ball sized embers fell onto dry, warm, old-dashioned tar roofed buildings that ignited immediately.

[SarahW]

I was suspecting a worker of igniting adhesives. None of the local reporting is speculating on the cause.

It sounds like you have some indside information....can you say where you heard the inside scoop?

This fire reminded me of one that happened a few years ago. Charles stores was being renovated and was almost finished - there was an explosion, fire, and the nearly-completed building was ash and cinder at the end.

I think that one was suspected of being caused by work materials that caught fire.

[AnAmericanMother]

My dad almost died in an office fire caused by a construction worker using a sparking bandsaw while trimming out parquet floor with construction adhesive.

It went up instantaneously (killing all three construction workers and the receptionist) and spread through the entire front of the office within three minutes. My dad was in the research library with headphones on listening to tapes when he smelled smoke. Thirty more seconds and he wouldn't have made it out of the library. A bunch of people were trapped in the back corner of the office - they wound up knocking windows out with chairs and hanging out to breathe (this was 20 floors up).

Those adhesives are nasty.

[Mo1]

Note the time of the fire - lunchtime. Richmond construction workers, the kind who do trim-out, are notoriously dim-witted and they all, to a man, smoke.

Years ago in Philly a high rise building caught fire ... caused a lot of damage, many floors were destroyed and several fire fighters were killed

It started from a renovation being done and highly flamable cleaning fluids started the fire ... so I wouldn't jump to the conclusion that it was cause by smoking

[iceskater]

Official email that I got says that the fire started in an apartment building under construction.
It spread quickly and caused damage to the School of the Arts and a number of cars.
One injury - VCU parking services employee - smoke inhalation and she is ok.
A number of buildings were evacuated without incident.
Some students will not be allowed to stay in their dorms tonight - they will stay at the Seigel center.
The building under construction was to have housed students in the fall so plan B will have to go into effect.

Check www.vcu.edu "news headlines" for more info.

[sultan88]

Sorry I missed all the excitement. But I was watching the coverage on TV at the clinic.

[SarahW]

I won't jump to conclusions, especially since cav68 has posted that he has info that it was an electrical explosion.

Re philly - weren't the flammable liquids ignited by something?

I'm saying in THIS town, that source of ignition would not be hard to come by.

[SarahW]

Whoah! That's one of the worst things I've ever heard! It's amazing to me that for all the property damamge here, there is only a single casualty, a security guard who is being treated for smoke inhalation.

I was reading that the drywall was mostly not up in the building...that since there was nothing to slow the progress of the fire, the building was an inferno in minutes.

[Dr. Eckleburg]

Tar roofs don't "ignite immediately."

[SarahW]

They did today. With big, soccer-ball sized embers landing on old tar rooves on a hot day, I'm not surprised they did. "official" firemen on the scene have cited the tar roofing as a contributing factor in the spread of the conflagration.

They say the rooves ignited immediately.

[Flora McDonald]

It will be interesting to hear the cause of the explosion. Fireballs?????

[JOE6PAK]

My Daughter lives on the 900 block of Franklin. If the wind had been from the north, her place woud have gone up too! I saw the smoke from I-95 and called her. She just left class (VCU) and had no idea the fire was 1000 ft. from her apartment. She heard the sirens but with the radio on had no idea what the deal was. She said it was a party atmosphere in the streets. Lunchtime, clear blue sky, 75 degrees. It is the talk of the town!

[JOE6PAK]

...the conflagration.

That is what many of the old time Richmond folks call the Civil War.

[Agamemnon]

What years were you in MCV dental school? My lab partner in chemistry went to MCV and got his DDS there. Lives and practices today in the WestEnd.