I don't think anything terribly historical was damaged, but at least 19 buildings and several vehicles, including a fire truck, were burned severely. The VCU Fine Arts Building, home to the best sculpture program in the country, suffered light damage to the roof. I saw it myself: the edges of the roof near the fire were singed and all the windows were severely burned. W. Broad, a major thoroughfare in this city, is still shut down for a significant chunk. The Ukrops 10k is still on (I can see them setting up in Monroe Park) but I think they changed the route slightly. It was only supposed to go within a block of the fires anyway. And the city has declared the first state of emergency since Hurricane Isabel hit.
Well, this has certainly been an exciting year in Richmond; since September we've experience, in order, a hurricane, an earthquake, a blizzard, and now an inferno. I wonder if it's a sign of something...
I too want to thank everyoen for their concerns, but I'm fine and so is my living space, which is more than can be said for the people whose homes were affected by this. I ask you to divert your prayers from me to them, and that they can rebuild and recover from their losses quickly.
Unfortunately for whoever owns the building (Not VCU), I think there's a law in Virginia that says if a building is constructed mostly of wood (which the first building was, cheap idiots) then it can't be insured. All I know is that, even if this was an accident, either the city or VCU is going to find someone to crucify for this, guaranteed.
