On the Scene at Eastern Market
Early this morning, a three-alarm fire gutted the South Hall of the Eastern Market building on Capitol Hill. The fire is believed to have started in a dumpster behind the building.
Capitol Hill resident Makan Delrahim was circling the block in search of a parking spot when on his second trip through the alley behind the Eastern Market building he noticed flames shooting out of a blue dumpster near C Street SE.
"I guess by some fortunate accident I said, 'I'm gonna go down the alley to get back on C Street,' and then I noticed the trash bin," Delrahim said. "At first I didn't think it was that big a deal. Then as I got closer I thought, 'Oh my God, this is not looking good."
Delrahim called 911 at 12:55 a.m.
Fire engines arrived at 12:58 a.m., eventually swelling to a force of over 160 firefighters and 70 pieces of equipment, said fire department spokesperson Alan Etter. Minutes after the first blaze, a second fire---which Etter said appears to be a coincidence---ignited in a dumpster in an alley behind the Pour House bar on the 300 block of Pennsylvania Avenue SE. Firefighters put it out in minutes.
But Eastern Market burned for hours. The smell of burning wood dominated a three-block radius of the building, as huge plumes of smoke poured into the night air. Police used flares to block off all surrounding streets. People poured out of their houses to watch the destruction.
At 1:30 a.m., about 40 neighbors in pajamas huddled across the street with their arms folded and mouths open, staring at the flames popping out of the South Hall roof. A young couple's dog whimpered.
Jaime Capella was in his house on C Street SE when he said he heard a series of "boom boom" noises, followed by the wailing of fire engines. He brought his video camera to the scene.
"It was calm and then it was spreading. There were a lot of firemen inside," Capella said. "It's a shame."
Firefighters were initially combating the flames from inside, but then evacuated the building for fear of roof collapse.
Police officers ask residents to move away, cordoning off areas of sidewalk with police tape. But people keep creeping closer to take pictures and watch the destruction of the neighborhood landmark, which has operated continuously since 1873. Pockets of people formed at the mouths of alleys across 7th Street SE.
A few minutes after 2 a.m., high-pressure streams from two water cannons sent pieces of the roof flying into the air, prompting a police officer to ask forcefully for people to get back.
Susan Jacobs, a teacher at the market's pottery studio, hurriedly walked from group to group, distraught. It was clear she wouldn't be going to teaching this week.
Ward 6 Councilmember Tommy Wells arrived at about 2:15, saying he'd been awakened by a call from 1st District police Commander Diane Groomes 20 minutes prior---"She thinks that we've lost the whole building," he said. [It later became clear that this was not true; the north end of the building was not gravely damaged.]
Squinting into a couple TV cameras, the councilmember said, "People are gonna be incredibly sad when they wake up tomorrow and find that Eastern Market is lost."
Photograph by Arthur Delaney
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7:42 am[...] i live about four blocks from eastern market, and was saddened to hear about the fire that ravaged it the other night. [...]
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3:50 pm[...] phoenix in DC? WaPo reports that Eastern Market businesses (i.e., those actually displaced by the April 30 fire) will soon have a new home across the [...]
2:24 pm
As a Hill resident and weekly patron of the market I will do whatever I can to help the vendors to survive and rebuild. I can't convey how upset I am over this...
3:53 pm
This center of the capital hill community must be restored. I want to see this community pull together and bring back this place that is so important to us.
5:59 pm
we will have to be en guarde against the development leeches who undoubtedly will want to condoize the market. that may mean organizing and securing pledges for restoration comparable to the cash that will undoubtedly be backing the aims of land grabbers.
11:57 pm
Nice picture. Great reporting!
9:28 pm
This is a tremendous loss for - not only the merchants - some long-time friends of mine, but the patrons who visit Eastern market every weekend - as if by some ritualistic decree.
It took quite some time to renovate the shelters and now this ...
I posted a piece on craigslist.org - forwarding one of rthe emails that cropped up - calling for support of patrons together with local businesses to come together and do something positive in assuring that our precious Eastern Market becomes rebuilt/refurbished and secure once again ... only better than before ...
Love to John Harrard, Susan Jacobs to name but a few of the resident merchants.
12:15 am
I suppose I should consider myself fortunate to have worked on and designed the recent renovations of Eastern Market (EM). The untold hours I spent specifying, detailing, and refining the drawings are fond memories now…
A week before the fire, my son and I went to EM for hot chocolate and sandwiches while shopping around for a Capitol Hill studio location; we sat on the bench near the new canopy, and chatted with an old-time friend from my college days who’s been selling his work there every weekend for the past several years…
And then the fire happened on the 30th of April. Life goes on and nothing stays the same.