One year after a devastating school fire, this teacher made an emotional return: 'I feel like crying'

RICHMOND, Va. -- Tracee Candia has not been back to the fire-damaged William Fox Elementary school building much over the past year. But a recent return to the building where she taught for 25 years brought back a flood of memories.

"It feels sad. But I want to hold on to the happiness for what's to come," she said.

Candia said she and her fellow teachers have long since picked up where the February 2022 fire abruptly left them and have settled in, for now, at the once-empty Clark Springs Elementary School about a mile and a half away.

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IN-DEPTH COVERAGE: Fox Elementary School Fire

"Clark Springs is doing exactly what it's supposed to do for us which has given us a place of shelter right now," she said. "But nothing can compare, in my opinion, to being in the building at Fox. Just all the love, all the children's artwork all over, it feels like the whole foundation of the school is built around the creativity and the love and the heart of the children and the teachers and the community."

Candia said the last year has brought an outpouring of support that every member of the Fox community has drawn upon. She said it was something she hoped would continue when a new building arises on the spot where the beloved school sat for more than a century.

"I want to feel that family and the love that I felt with all the community helping us and pitching in, and just cheering for us and rooting for us and backing us," she said. "I want us to have that same feeling in this building."

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While there is a design for a new Fox Elementary School, when construction might start and finish remain unknown.

But like many of her colleagues, this fifth-grade teacher is eager for that new chapter.

"I'm ready to come home," she said. "I feel like crying."

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