Shortly after 9 pm last night a fire broke out on the second floor of 223 S. Cherry Street.
According to a neighbor’s report, the young resident had not been aware of the incident until she arrived home and said that her neighbor’s door had been busted in to get to the fire but that the fire seemed to be confined to a stairway area and it smelled like an electrical fire.
(Speculation is that the fire started when the power came back on for most of the neighborhood after Thursday’s storm.)
Thankfully, no one was injured and, from the rear of outside the building, it does not look like there was much damage.
Oregon Hill residents are very, very appreciative of the fast response and good work of the Richmond Fire Department.
—
By the way, this is not just another apartment building. It was built as part of Grace Arent’s legacy and originally housed the Instructive Visiting Nurse Association (IVNA), one of the earliest forms of public health care in Virginia.
From a 2009 Richmond Magazine article from Harry Kollatz, Jr:
The IVNA provided health care for young mothers, babies and the chronically ill who could not afford proper care. A building she constructed in 1903 for St. Andrew’s teachers at 223 S. Cherry St. became in 1911 headquarters for the IVNA. The IVNA, founded in 1900, is today the largest noninstitutional, nonprofit home health-care agency in the Richmond region.
