Fire engulfs Fox Elementary School; early warning may have gone unheeded |

A large fire erupted at Fox Elementary School late Friday night, resulting in major damage to the building, located in Richmond’s Fan District.

The Richmond Fire Department responded to the call at 2300 Hanover Avenue as flames engulfed the school. Built in 1911, the school has about 350 students, according to state figures reported in the fall.

The Richmond Fire Department worked to extinguish the flames from all sides through about 1 a.m., when the fire was mostly contained. Crews remained on the scene through the morning.

Much of the top floor and the roof of the school was destroyed or damaged.

Jason Kamras, Superintendent of Richmond Public Schools, held a briefing on Saturday morning.

“I’d like to ask everyone to please keep our students most of all, their families and teachers, our support staff, please keep them in your prayers,” Kamras said. “Please reach out to them and support them in any way you possibly can.”

An investigation will take place, but information obtained by the Richmond Times-Dispatch suggests that the first alarm may have failed to trigger an appropriate response.

At 9:29 p.m., the first call went out to firefighters, but after visiting the school, they reported seeing nothing out of place through the windows.

Since it was outside of school hours, calls went out to the alarm company and RPS to gain access to the building, but there was not any access granted as a result of those calls.

At 10:09 p.m., according to dispatch calls, those firefighters left the scene, unable to identify anything of concern.

About 26 minutes later, flames were visible from the exterior, and the call went out to firefighters to battle what ultimately became a major fire.

The Richmond Times-Dispatch will have ongoing updates on the fire and building rescue efforts throughout the day Saturday.