Suspicious Fire Burns at Former Virginia High School
Source Richmond Times-Dispatch, Va.
Richmond fire crews quickly knocked down a blaze that may have by set by juveniles Monday evening inside the vacant, former Armstrong High School in the city's East End.
No one was hurt.
Firefighters were called at 7:14 p.m. to the boarded-up school in the 1600 block of North 31st Street. When they arrived, fire and thick black smoke could be seen coming from a first-floor classroom and the flames lapped up the side of the building to the second floor.
Soon after the fire call, Richmond authorities issued a radio alert for several juvenile boys, 9 to 12 years old, who were seen running from the building, which was closed in 2004 when Armstrong merged with John F. Kennedy High School.
Firefighters had to break inside the secured building to bring their hoses inside the school and to the classroom that was on fire.
"The fire was knocked down fairly quickly," said Battalion Chief John Harkness. "We had fire on the first floor with some extension to the second-floor and a little bit of extension into the ceiling areas."
The fire, which was marked under control in about 15 minutes, blackened a portion of the school's brick exterior where the smoke and flames came through the windows.
Copyright 2012 - Richmond Times-Dispatch, Va.
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
