Authorities are still investigating the cause of multiple fires that broke out at RFK Stadium in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday.
RFK Stadium is on fire: pic.twitter.com/pGYhqXgYdz
— Ellie Hall (@ellievhall) July 5, 2022
Fox 5 News in Washington reported that D.C. Fire and EMS crews were called to the scene around 5:20 p.m. on Tuesday. It took roughly an hour to get the multiple fires under control and extinguished.
Working Fire RFK Stadium. #DCsBravest have located several fires in below grade levels in the stadium. In the process of extinguishing same. No injuries reported. Investigators enroute. pic.twitter.com/RguAa8KPeM
— DC Fire and EMS (@dcfireems) July 5, 2022
"[The smoke] was trickling up through the stadium out of different pathways. It's a pretty open-air stadium. Where the fire was, it's opened all the way up, so it's going to happen," Fire and EMS Chief John A. Donnelly Sr. told the media, via CBS Sports. "Today with the heat and humidity, the air is dense so it's hard to move smoke out of all the different rooms that are in the basement."
Donnelly added that no people were found at the scene.
RFK Stadium was the home stadium for Washington's NFL team from 1960 to 1996. The building is expected to be torn down, and there are no current plans to put another football stadium in its place. The Commanders are currently looking for space to build a new stadium and recently had their proposal to build a 55,000-seat stadium and play space in Virginia tabled.
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