Fire at TCU's bookstore

A fire occurred at Texas Christian University’s bookstore on the corner of West Berry St. and University Drive. According to early news reports, the fire started about 2 a.m. last night, and was put out by about 4:30 a.m. No cause has been determined as of yet. On this post are some pictures that I took later in the morning. There were no fire crews working on any fires, so I was able to get closer to take pictures of the damage than I otherwise probably could have gotten.

If the firefighters had still been battling the blaze when I went there, I wouldn’t have tried to get any closer, because I wouldn’t want to be in the way of the firefighters trying to do their job. I walked around cautiously because of all the fire retardant foam on the ground (the stuff that looks like snow in the pictures), and took mainly photos of the structural damage. I thank God that this didn’t occur during the day when it would have been occupied by bookstore staff and customers. From what I’ve heard so far, one fireman was injured, but that’s it.

The other good thing is that the contents of the bookstore had already been emptied out previously and moved into a temporary building located on the store’s parking lot. The bookstore building was about to be remodeled, and the staff and merchandise had moved into this temporary building in February while the store itself got worked on. The plan had been for the bookstore to reopen in the fall, but now it looks like the opening is going to be delayed considerably, because with this kind of damage, they probably are going to have to demolish this structure and start over.