Fire guts Clay Street building

    A fire gutted an unused warehouse near the Stuart C. Siegel Center Monday, just past the edge of VCU property.
Sarah Bendall, a fashion-merchandising major, was in the area when the fire broke out. Bendall said she left her boyfriend’s apartment on the 900 block of Clay Street when she noticed the smell of smoke.
    After picking up her car, Bendall drove by the area and saw her boyfriend’s block had been closed off by the fire department.
    “I saw a bunch of smoke, and it looked like it was coming from my boyfriend’s house, so I was worried,” Bendall said. “It was just gushing and pumping out black smoke.”
    Bendall said she also was concerned, because their dog was in her boyfriend’s apartment, to which she did not have access. Bendall took a closer look and realized the fire was on the 1100 block—down the street from her boyfriend’s apartment. She eventually left and returned to her house.
    Bendall said she could see smoke in the sky, rising from Clay Street, from as far away as her apartment near The Diamond.
    While Bendall said it took most of the day for the fire to be defeated, it appears firefighters contained the blaze in a shorter amount of time.
    Students were notified about the fire around 1:13 p.m. in an e-mail advising them to avoid the area. Another e-mail sent around 1:40 p.m. told students the blaze was under control, but still advised them to keep clear of the 1100 block of Clay Street.
    According to the Richmond Times-Dispatch, the Richmond Fire Department determined the fire started in a dumpster containing construction debris and then spread to the warehouse. The cause of the fire has not been determined.
    A number of people, including VCU students and residents of an adult home, were evacuated from surrounding buildings and watched from nearby as firefighters worked.
    The Richmond Times-Dispatch reported that Richmond Fire Department Lt. Michael Oprandy said, “In all, nearly three-quarters of the available firefighters in the area were on the scene. Our people worked very hard through this.”