Fire rips through building near campus

        Flames raged throughout the construction site of a medical office a block away from the “gates” of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, March 9,2004.
Although the cause of the fire that engulfed this building on the corner of St. Mary Boulevard and Brook Street within minutes is under investigation; no one was reported injured.
A puffy cloud of gray smoke ascended above rooftops in the vicinity of Old Tyme Grocery, a popular, local poor boy shop, as sirens rang throughout the streets and police cars weaved through traffic along their paths to the site. 
        A maze of yellow, caution tape and police officers, with a few fire engines as obstacles, was the pathway to a crowd of onlookers in an empty parking lot.
        Perhaps if the building were occupied, there would be more sincere and concerned reactions than stoic faces and students capturing the moment via cell phone cameras.
        The structure of  what was to be the Acadiana Renal Medical Office still stands, with incinerated installation, a torched wood frame and windows that appear to be untouched. 

The Vermilion, University of Louisiana at Lafayette's student newspaper