A pool house at SwimRVA North in Henrico County, Virginia burned down early Tuesday morning.
At around 1:00 AM on July 7, local firemen received a call about a potential lightning strike on a tree. When the fire department arrived, several parts of the pool house were in flames. This included the main entrance, the breezeway, and the attic.
SwimRVA, a learn-to-swim nonprofit with several campuses in the greater Richmond area, said nobody was harmed during the overnight fire. The north Henrico branch, where the fire happened, is closed until further notice. Read the organization’s full news release below:
SwimRVA-North is temporarily closed due to a fire at the main pool house early this morning, July 7, 2026. At this time, it appears the fire could have been caused by a downed power line during the thunderstorm. Thankfully, no one was injured. SwimRVA is extremely grateful to the Henrico Fire Department for its quick response and effort to extinguish the fire. We are currently assessing the extent of damage and will reopen the pool as soon as possible. We appreciate the patience of the community as we respond to the incident.
The incident comes about three weeks after a 9-year-old boy died at the pool. On his first day of summer swim camp, King Overton was pulled out of the water unresponsive during free swim period. He died at the hospital later that day. You can read SwimSwam’s coverage of that incident and donate to Overton’s GoFundMe here.
Officials involved have stated several times they do not believe the two incidents are linked. They also had trained canines sniff for potential accelerants, and they found no signs of arson from this.
Photos and videos of the incident can be found on this local news page.
