Nearly five months after a fire ripped through and destroyed William Fox Elementary School, a report released by the Richmond Fire Department on July 1 offers little insight as to its cause. Property damage as a result of the fire is estimated to be $2.5 million for Fox.

Meanwhile an investigation is underway for another blaze that struck on June 29, the first day of summer school for the district. In that fire, five buses awaiting repair at a bus depot on Chamberlayne Avenue were destroyed.

The Richmond Fire Department last week announced that its investigation of the Feb. 11 fire at Fox Elementary in the city’s Fan District is complete, and that the “fire is classified as accidental and the cause is undetermined.”

According to a fire department news release, its 911 call center had no record of being notified by the school’s alarm system about the three-alarm fire. Rather, a witness called and reported hearing the school’s interior alarm and seeing strobe lights flashing. In a witness statement taken from Fox Principal Daniela Jacobs, she said the school’s fire alarm panel had not been functioning for months, and that she had repeatedly informed RPS about the issue.

A 31-page report by the fire department, some of it redacted, states the fire started in the school’s attic, where there is a classroom and an auditorium.

In the report, Mrs. Jacobs said she had been informed that the building was infested with mice, and that “mice had previously chewed through wires in the attic area.”

The attic itself could not be accessed due to safety concerns for investigators. The report states that further investigation will not be conducted until the City of Richmond and VAcorp., the school system’s insurance company, completes its investigations.

“This includes the shoring up of the building, and removal of asbestos and the building engineer determines this area of the building is safe for investigators to enter,” the report said.

The report also stated the lack of a “fire extinguishment system” contributed to the spread of the fire.

Looking beyond the devastation of the incident to the future of the school, 4th District RPS school board member Jonathan Young said Fox will be renovated. He said due to the extensive damage to the building, however, a large portion will have to be removed to accommodate construction.

“Our timeline would allow for students and teachers to return [for] the 2024-2025 academic year,” Mr. Young stated in an email Tuesday night.

As RPS continues to grapple with the Fox Elementary fire and how to best educate its students, the news of five destroyed buses, including a Lit Limo (a mobile library for RPS students), are a total loss, Mr. Young said.

There is another Lit Limo bus, however, and he said the loss of the buses will not hinder transporting summer school students. “RPS insured the vehicles and regrettably they are, as I understand it, totaled,” he stated in an email. “A cause is . . . unknown.”

RPS owns a bus depot on Belt Boulevard in Richmond’s south side and recently renewed a lease with the facility, which also is used to repair buses.

“We have discussed, in the past, if it makes sense to instead use our capital portfolio to erect a garage facility,” Mr. Young stated, adding that a 2014 audit recommended as much.

While finding a permanent location for RPS buses has been discussed in the past, Mr. Young stated the immediate concern will be finding another facility that can house buses in need of repair, at least for now.