Traffic is disrupted but no injuries result from downtown electrical fire

An underground electrical fire at 12th and Main streets Thursday afternoon spewed heavy smoke, shut down power to nearby buildings, led to evacuations and snarled traffic but caused no injuries.

Richmond Fire Department spokesman Lt. Shawn Jones, said firefighters returning from another call spotted the smoke around 3:22 p.m. The fire was underneath metal sidewalk grates covering an electrical vault at the southwest corner of the intersection along 12th Street.

The vault is next to the 25-story Bank of America building at 1111 E. Main that was evacuated, said Jones.

Jones said firefighters had to wait for Dominion Virginia Power to cut electrical power to the area before they could start extinguishing the blaze with a combination of foam and water. At one point, flames were shooting six to 10 feet above the grating, he said.

A breeze carried the sometimes black and sometimes light-colored smoke in various directions. Police blocked intersections in the area so fire equipment could set up. Police officers also assisted firefighters with evacuations. Jones said the blaze was brought under control within an hour.

He said the power company initially cut power to a large area downtown. But service was soon restored to many buildings when it became apparent it was safe to do so. The Bank of America Building was evacuated

 David Botkins, a spokesman for Dominion Virginia Power, said the company was first aware of an outage at 3:08 p.m. and power was cut to buildings that included the Federal Reserve Bank, Dominion's headquarters at 1 James Plaza, the James Center and Richmond Plaza.

He said power was restored to all customers except for the Bank of America by 6:30 p.m. It was not know when power would be restored there and it may not be until Friday, he said Thursday night.

Dominion said it had replaced a large transformer in the vault in late summer. "All we know is that there was an equipment failure of some sort inside that vault, but we do not know the particulars of it yet. We are assessing it," said Botkins.

Enrico Armetta had a front row seat from Jo-Jo's, the pizzeria he's operated for 10 years, and which looks over the site of the fire across South 12th Street.

"It was frightening. It gave me chills," he said. He said he immediately called 911 when he saw smoke rising from the grates. The thick black smoke rose from underground and covered the Bank of America sign on the corner and rose among area buildings, he said.

"Then the flames started coming and shooting high into the air. I was thinking, ‘They better hurry.'"

When fire crews started fighting the fire, Armetta likened the scene to a fireworks display; a friend said a burst of explosions resembled rounds from a machine gun.

Employees evacuated from nearby buildings had slightly different descriptions of what happened. Peter Wrampelmeier, a Virginia Retirement System employee in the pavilion building next to the Bank of America, said he heard a loud noise but it wasn't a "big boom."

Other employees in the pavilion building said they heard explosions, including one that occurred after firefighters starting extinguishing the blaze. One co-worker said "our lights flickered."

Another co-worker, who uses a wheelchair, was carried out of the building from the fourth floor by Richmond police. She arrived to a big round of applause from fellow employees gathered at 10th and Bank streets. "Actually, it's a good thing all those fire drills finally came in handy," Wrampelmeier.

Nason Zia saw smoke coming from under the sidewalk grates as he was entering the Bank of America building to go to the teller line. "When I was in the bank, flames started happening, and there was more smoke and thundering noises," he said. He said he felt the ground shake. "We saw all the fire trucks set up ... and then they said we had to move."

The fire knocked out website and e-mail servers for Virginia Commonwealth University's Monroe Park Campus. The medical campus was not affected, VCU spokeswoman Anne Buckley said.

Ramps from Interstate 95 north and south to Broad Street at Exit 74 and the ramp to Franklin Street from I-95 south were closed briefly because of the fire, the Virginia Department of Transportation said.

Traffic was opened back up on most of the streets by 5:20 p.m.
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Contact Frank Green at (804) 649-6340 or fgreenx@timesdispatch.com.
Contact Bill McKelway at (804) 619-6601 or bmckelway@timesdispatch.com.