
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, August 31, 1993                   TAG: 9308310120
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: COLONIAL HEIGHTS                                LENGTH: Short

RUINS OF WAL-MART STORE BURN

The ruins of a Wal-Mart, destroyed Aug. 6 by a tornado that killed three shoppers in the store, have burned.

The ruins at the Southpark Mall had been guarded around the clock. City and Wal-Mart officials said there was no electrical service to the building shell.

"The chance of arson is really zero," Jeff Powell, a district manager for Wal-Mart, said after the Sunday fire that was reported around 7:50 p.m.

Colonial Heights Fire Chief A.G. Moore Jr. said the fire ran the length of the rear of the building and halfway down one side. Firefighters did not try to enter the shell of the building "because it was too unsafe to send personnel in," Moore said.

Powell said salvage operations were completed about a week after the tornado, and the building shell was scheduled to be razed. During a walk-through last week, Powell said, he saw flammable materials, such as cans of paint, that had been crushed and spilled in the tornado.

A new Wal-Mart is scheduled to be built at a new site. A Sam's Club will be built where the ruins of the current Wal-Mart sit.

by CNB