News reports
From the university president a few hours after:
"I want to apprise the University and Health System Communities of what we know about the fire that occurred approximately three hours ago at the apartment/retail site under construction at the corner of Broad and Shafer. The fire spread extremely quickly and was intense enough to cause exterior damage to the School of the Arts on Broad Street. A number of vehicles caught on fire as well, and the fire did spread to some extent into sites north of Broad Street.
"Our student apartment building at 900 West Broad, our bookstore and West Broad Parking Deck, as well as the School of the Arts building, were evacuated without incident. We are grateful that it appears that only one person has suffered any injury at all, and that is a VCU parking employee who suffered some smoke inhalation. The VCU Police tell me that she is doing fine."
The local paper has a couple news reports as of this evening, March 27, 2004.
The first Times-Dispatch article, Blaze Traced to Dumpster, has a really bland title, but gives a detailed description of what happened, including the damage done to homes in Carver. They have a picture taken looking down Broad. That view is far scarier than anything I saw. This is the picture that was on the front page this morning under the headline "Firestorm."
The next article has damage estimates and a picture taken minutes after it started. The fire did indeed start right in the center near where that truck (that we spectators mistook for a backhoe) was exploding.
