THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, August 8, 1996 TAG: 9608080378
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MIKE MATHER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: 96 lines
It was 11:15 p.m. when Linda Portis got the call. Her stomach knotted.
The past 12 years of her life were in jeopardy. A massive fire was ravaging in the unfinished U-shaped apartment building that nearly bumps into her gift shop on Shore Drive. She jumped into her car and sped down Great Neck Road and over the Long Creek Bridge.
``When I hit the bridge, I saw flames that made me think I wouldn't have a shop anymore,'' she said. ``I thought, `There goes my whole life, all my dreams.' ''
She was still a mile away.
The flames belching from the four-story Sunstates House - what was to have been a retirement complex for senior citizens - shot more than 100 feet into the clear night sky. A massive smoke plume loomed like a thunderhead, at times blotting out the orange quarter moon just beginning to climb from the horizon.
The flames ripping through the four-story complex would cause more than $3 million damage by investigators' first estimates. The blaze toppled two of the sections into a smoldering, black heap and gutted the third.
The speed at which the fire devoured the unfinished apartments made investigators suspect arson. Fire spokesman Chase Sargent said nothing investigators have found so far pointed to arson, but he conceded investigators are considering that possibility.
Most of the department's arson investigators were at the charred building Wednesday, and a petroleum-sniffing dog was flown from North Carolina to help find the fire's origin.
Investigators also reviewed several videotapes of the fire, shot by amateur and professional photographers, to watch how the flames spread.
Officially, the fire is being called ``suspicious.''
At the height of the blaze, three fire trucks used hoses perched atop towering ladders to pump more than 4,000 gallons a minute onto the complex. They pumped at that pace more than two hours.
Like her neighboring storekeepers, Janie Slade was also rushing to the fire Tuesday night. She also wanted to see if the business she built during the past dozen years was in danger.
Her store, just like most of the others in the Seashore Shoppes, was less than 10 feet from the western walls of the burning apartments.
When the city approved construction of the 109 two-bedroom apartments for low- and middle-income senior citizens, many business owners complained because the new U-shaped structure would be crammed so close to their stores. One city councilman said approving the plan was like ``trying to get a size 12 foot into a size 8 shoe.''
When Slade crossed the bridge, she also saw the billowing blaze and thought her store was lost. The apartments' roof and walls were collapsing and falling onto the Seashore Shoppes.
``It looked like the whole area was on fire,'' Slade said. ``It looked like we weren't going to be here today.''
On Wednesday, most of the Seashore Shoppes owners were, remarkably, open for business.
``That's thanks only to the Fire Department,'' Portis said. ``If they hadn't been there like they were, we would've been gone.''
Portis' store, Shells by Linda, had some minor water damage. Most of the businesses abutting the gutted building also suffered some damage, but fire officials said most of it was cosmetic.
The store owners credited firefighters with saving the shopping center.
``They were determined to save (the stores),'' said Slade, owner of Seashore Bike Shop. ``They were determined not to lose this building. They fought it. Hard.''
Sunstates House was more than half finished, with completion scheduled for Sept. 30. The first residents were to move in around November.
The project was co-sponsored by a group of 67 Presbyterian churches in eastern Virginia.
``In my estimation, I would say it's a total loss,'' said Manning C. Merritt, president of the group, Tidewater Westminster Homes. ``I don't know what will happen with it. It is insured, of course, but what the numbers are going to be when they get through, I don't know.''
Merritt said he assumes the project will continue.
``We put a lot of effort into that thing in the last three years, so it's a big disappointment,'' Merritt said. ``We're going to do everything we can to keep it alive.''
A petroleum-sniffing dog, a black Labrador, was taken on a cursory search Wednesday afternoon. Sargent said the dog and its handler were just getting acclimated to the building and would begin a thorough search for traces of fuels today.
Investigators said they expect to be at the site for several days. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by David Hollingworth/The Virginian-Pilot
Virginia Beach firefighters succeeded in keeping flames from the
Sunstates House complex from spreading to adjacent shops, left.
Fire officials said damage to the shops Tuesday night was largely
cosmetic. The apartment complex, above, was destroyed.
Color graphic by Ken Wright/The Virginian-Pilot
Area Shown: Construction Fire
KEYWORDS: SUSPICIOUS FIRE ARSON by CNB