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An explosive fire broke out at 12:32 p.m. today in a Virginia Commonwealth University building under construction in the 900 block of West Broad Street, igniting other blazes in nearby buildings, sending soccer ball-sized cinders tumbling down city streets and filling the sky with smoke.

The heat was so intense and 15 mph winds so high that the fire jumped across Broad Street from the south to the north side and started to spread into the Carver neighborhood.

Dominion Virginia Power cut off electric service to more than 1,000 customers in the area for safety reasons, a spokesman said.

Traffic is being rerouted around the area, and a river of water from fire hoses is flowing down Broad Street. Burning embers are floating over Interstate 95.

VCU spokesman Michael Ford said early this afternoon that no injuries have been handled so far at the Medical College of Virginia hospital.

By 2 p.m. today, the fire had burned up to the alley between Marshall and Broad streets at Goshen.

Firefighters are now pouring water on houses on the south side of Marshall in an attempt to keep the flames from spreading further north.

Buildings on both sides of Marshall have been evacuated.

Keith Vida, Richmond assistant fire marshal, said the blaze broke out at the former site of a Hardees restaurant.

VCU officials said they were not aware of the cause of the fire. Officials evacuated a nearby bookstore, parking deck and a fine arts building nearby.

"It's really tragic," said VCU President Eugene Trani as he stood on the corner of Grace and Shafer streets.

Fire officials said the first alarm came in at 12:34 p.m. with a report that the third and fourth floors of the structure were on fire. The second alarm came in at 12:44 and the third alarm at 1:04 p.m. The conflagration was so intense that authorities called on mutual aid, and Chesterfield and Henrico County firefighters are also on the scene.

The flames, fed by winds, have leapt to other buildings, including wooden structures, along Marshall, Goshen and Clay streets

Eric Helmick, a VCU construction inspector who was working at VCU's new dining hall, said he was eating his lunch, looked over and saw the smoke.

"I've never seen anything like this," he said.

VCU officials said the four-story apartment and retail development, when finished, was expected to cost $14 million. The developer had already spend up to $4 million on the development, VCU officials said.

More than 170 students were supposed to have moved into the apartments in August.