Fire Destroys Marine Research Building in Virginia

Authorities are investigating a fire that destroyed the main research building at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science’s Eastern Shore Laboratory in Wachapreague.

The institute says on its website that the fire at Seaside Hall occurred early Thursday. No one was injured.

A small library, classroom space, and several offices and laboratories were housed in the building. The institute says the fire caused more than $1 million in damage.

Eastern Shore Laboratory Director Mark Luckenbach says an irreplaceable collection of pressed algae containing specimens dating to the 1960s was destroyed, along with a shellfish collection and preserved specimens of fish and invertebrates.