A real loss for Capitol Hill
Today, the famous Eastern Market caught fire this morning and is completely ruined. After 134 years of continuous operation, Eastern Market didn't open today. Mrs. Expat Teacher and I live about 15 minutes from Eastern Market and we truly love it. It is an authentic street market where locals come to buy their meat, produce and cheeses. Eastern Market has a truly authentic European feel and we would love to live closer. The DC government has declared that it will do all that it can to repair the building and return it to the way it was. We shall see...Mrs. Expat Teacher and I went on a walk over there tonight. Here are some pictures from her cameraphone.
Here is the fire truck a full 18 hours after the fire started still working. You can see some of the damage to the roof.
Here is an closer look at the fireman working and some of the damage to the roof.
The front has had all its windows completely destroyed. I'm not sure of that beige stuff is melted insulation or what, but it was around all the windows. A building company was coming by to secure the windows with plywood as we arrived.
And we weren't the only ones who wanted to see what had happened.
Here's the beginning of a debris pile that will eventually need dump trucks to haul it away.
The fire started in that brown dumpster behind the blue one. You can see how the roof caught on fire and then torched the whole place.
This is the southern facade. Notice how you can see the sky through that center window. That isn't a skylight. That's fire damage.
Finally, here is a photo of the entire southern end of the complex. As you can see, the structure is still there, but the inside is destroyed.
posted by Expat Teacher @ 11:04 PM
