An early morning blaze last month that destroyed two row houses and left two others slightly damaged has left some students taking their fall final exams this semester.
The Dec. 15 fire occurred while students were in the midst of final exams week and left the students scrambling to find food,shelter and a place to study.
Martha Green, assistant to the vice provost for student affairs and enrollment services, said VCU administrators and faculty worked with students to make housing and academic arrangements.
“In some cases, students didn’t have anything left,” Green said. “Twelve fifty-five was liveable. They had lots of smoke damage in their clothes, so it wasn’t as if they had to move. Twelve fifty-one was liveable but they had some smoke damage there also.”
Though fire officials said that all the occupants evacuated soon after the fire began, Lt. Alfred Holmes, a worker for Richmond’s fire marshal, gave estimates for the damage to the more severely affected homes.
“Twelve fifty-seven’s estimated building loss was $70,000, and estimated content loss was $20,000,” Holmes said. “The estimated loss for 1259 was $80,000 building loss and a content loss of $20,000.”
VCU administrators offered those affected on-campus housing, but not all students needed it.
“Some students went home, one went to stay with friends,” Green said. “Two of them asked us for housing in our residence halls, and we were able to give one of them housing immediately that day. The other one did not ask for it until the 17th. We gave him some choices.”
VCU also provided meals for those who needed them.
“We requested meal coupons for them for a couple of meals a day,” Green said, “from the day of the fire through the following Monday, when they would have left for the holiday anyway.”
Since the fire occurred during exam week, many of the students affected needed to make other arrangements with their schoolwork.
“I talked to each one of these people individually by cell,” Green said, “and when they needed it we contacted the professors. I worked very closely with the College of Humanities and Sciences and with the School of Engineering because that’s where most of these classes were.”
“In some cases, the exams were postponed until spring sometime. In other cases, we got books for them — either books from faculty members or books from other students — so they had their books when they needed them,” she said. “I asked what they needed, and when they told me, we did get what it was that they needed. I did not have a request for any computers.”
Although this was a difficult time for most of the occupants, those who were not as badly affected found ways to help those who lost everything.
“One of the ladies whose apartment was least damaged with the least amount of smoke offered her clothes to the other girls.” Green said. “She said, ‘I have an abundance of clothes and I am very willing to share them.'”
Even though the aftermath of the fire was stressful for those who lived through it, it did serve to bring some of the victims closer together.
“In the scheme of things, they developed a sense of camaraderie that was in many ways very positive,” Green said. “They were each saying that they would get in touch with the other. They were very pleased for the help that we either provided or offered to provide. In the final analysis, it was a positive experience just to see that in such a difficult time, they were all still concerned about each other and willing to help one another.”