An insurance company that covered some of the losses from a massive fire at the Riverdale project in southeast Roanoke is suing to get its money back, claiming that an RV business destroyed in the blaze and its landlord violated the city fire code.

Progressive Advanced Insurance Co. paid nearly $300,000 to the owners of six vehicles — including Winnebagos, travel trailers and vans — that were being customized by Noke Van Co. when its building went up in flames the night of April 4, 2025.

In a subrogation claim, Progressive is seeking to recover that money from Noke Van and Riverdale Southeast LLC, which leased the now-leveled building that sat on its property. A former rayon factory, the site is being repurposed into a community of businesses, homes and recreational attractions.

Both Riverdale and Noke Van violated the city’s fire code by failing to maintain an adequate fire protection system, according to the complaint filed Friday in Roanoke Circuit Court.

Progressive is claiming that the water supply to a sprinkler system had been turned off long before the fire started. The lawsuit faults both Riverdale and Noke Van for failing to maintain the system in accordance with its original installation standards.

The fire was an accident, the Roanoke Fire Marsal determined, that originated from an electrical problem with one of the vans at the business off Ninth Street Southeast. Damage to the building and its contents was estimated to be $4.25 million.

“It’s been a long process since the fire,” Justin VanBlaricom, who co-owns Noke Van with his wife Keri, said Tuesday. “We have been dealing with insurance companies and lawyers trying to get our claims settled.”

A representative for Riverdale could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

But in a statement last year to Cardinal News, which reported details about the situation obtained through an open records request, Riverdale said that it had not informed Noke Van about what it called a “historic water line failure.”

Workers at the development had turned off all the valves that supplied the system because it was inoperable, Riverdale said, adding that it had made plans with city officials for emergency services in the event of a fire.

In its complaint, Progressive says the city cited Riverdale in February 2024 — about 14 months before the fire at Noke Van — for some of the same code violations that existed afterward.

“The injuries suffered by the insureds were a direct and proximate result of Defendants’ violations of the Fire Prevention Code and failure to remediate the same,” the complaint states.

A Richmond attorney who filed the lawsuit could not be reached for comment.

According to VanBlaricom, the filing is the first such subrogation claim to be made by various insurance carriers who had issued polices for the building and its contents. Discussions and investigations are continuing, both into the cause of the fire and its magnitude.

He said he hopes the process will soon be completed, for the sake of his business and its 22 customers whose vehicles were damaged or destroyed by the fire. “We’re trying to do right by our customers,” he said.

In seeking a total of $293,096, Progressive is accusing Riverdale and Noke Van of failing to make repairs to the building’s fire suppression system and neglecting to warn customers of the risks that posed.

The lawsuit also says highly combustible materials were stored in the building, making it harder for firefighters to put out the blaze and adding to problems caused by an inadequate water supply in the Riverdale development.

And, it claims, Noke Van was negligent in using a charger in a way contrary to the manufacturer’s recommendations when it plugged it into the battery of the van where the fire started.

Sitting on about 100 acres next to the Roanoke River that were once the site of the American Viscose plant, Riverdale is a project proposed by developer Ed Walker. The concept is to convert an aging industrial complex into a place for arts, culture, restaurants, sports, apartments and professional spaces.

VanBlaricom said Riverdale worked with him to find a new location in the complex.

As for the insurance issues, he said, “the difficult thing with something like this is the insurance companies are made whole first. That makes it hard for us.”

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