Moody Music Building currently on fire

Struck by lightning, maybe?

Why couldn’t it be Coleman?

They have a rehearsal room in that building for the band

Yes, the MDB is based out of it. Hope it’s not a total loss. The theater in there used to be a real nice facility. I assume it still is but it’s been over 20 years since I’ve been in there.

Based on the volume of smoke - really mostly steam from the attack lines now - still showing an hour into acb3340’s live stream this is a very significant fire.

Assuming it was sprinkler protected, lightning strike is a really good possibility. Standard sprinkler systems do a tremendous job containing fires that start inside but don’t do jack if it a roof/attic fire.

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They have that practice field right next to the building.

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Bands don't rehearse music all that much on fields, except for doing it in conjunction with learning their marching shows. If they're marching, it will be outside. If they're just rehearsing music as an ensemble, most bands are going into the air conditioned band hall.

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I'm fairly certain the music school uses that building

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The MDB is one of 9 permanent instrumental ensembles that are part of the school of music.

Hate to be a Debbie-downer, but rain doesn’t do anything to help with a working structure fire. It just makes it miserable for the firefighters. For starters, the fire is inside so the roof structure keeps the water for reaching it. Also, rain just doesn’t give the needed volume. Two inches of rain in an hour is a very heavy shower but it only yields about 18 gallons over a 30 square foot area. A single sprinkler head delivers that much in a minute. Those ladder and truck mounted master streams you saw on the news yesterday deliver 1,000+ gallons a minute.

There’s another problem with this particular fire. I saw an interview with the incident commander. The building had spray-in insulation. The insulation people like to say it is fire resistant. What they don't tell you is that when exposed to fire it breaks down into an incredibly thick, oily smoke that coats everything from ceiling down to the floor.

Based it being an attic/roof fire, the statement about the type of insulation, and the volume of water they flowed that part of the building is going to be a total loss. They will probably just raze and rebuild the whole thing.