...Fox Elementary School here in Richmond. It was completely destroyed by fire this past weekend - see the link below to a local news story about it.

The more information that comes out, the more of a comedy of errors it seems. It's also a real shame...it's sad to see an old building like that go up in flames, particularly when the fire department had been called out to investigate prior to the catastrophic fire.

Not included in the article linked below are some other tidbits of information that I've picked up on the radio, including the fact that the fire department initially could not gain access into the building on their first visit because they could not get in touch with any facilities personnel from the school system, and apparently there was no Knox box outside the door containing a key. That seems odd to me. I also heard that the fire department admitted that their crews did not investigate the attic on their initial visit. But even more notable is the revelation in the linked article that the fire alarm panel did not dial out to the alarm monitoring company because its dialer had not been programmed to accommodate the new phone system requirement that the area code be dialed for local calls. This makes me wonder how many other older fire alarm panels are essentially useless right now unbeknownst to property owners because the dialer needs to be reprogrammed.

I have a feeling that this is one of those events that will cause protocols to be reviewed and changed statewide, or maybe even nationally. What a mess.