Washington, D.C
'This was home': Residents devastated after blaze sparked by fireworks guts DC apartment building
Fireworks accidentally ignite massive DC apartment fire that displaced 76 residents
Officials say fireworks accidentally ignited a massive apartment fire in Washington, D.C. that injured a firefighter and left dozens of residents without a home.
WASHINGTON – Families who lived in one D.C. apartment building are devastated after officials say illegal fireworks are what sparked the two-alarm blaze that left them without a place to call home.
The fire broke out around 2 p.m. Tuesday at the Oxford Manor Apartments on Bowen Road in Southeast D.C.
FEMS says two kids playing with Roman candles are what caused this devastating fire that left 30 apartments destroyed and more than 75 people displaced.
Investigators say the firework landed on a second-floor balcony. Flames quickly shot out, spreading up into the attic and onto the roof, then to nearby apartments. The fire has been ruled accidental.
Two people went to the hospital with minor injuries but some of the residents FOX 5 spoke with say they are incredibly grateful it wasn’t worse.
Residents were going in and out of the burned building all day long, putting whatever they could salvage into black trash bags.
Fireworks accidentally ignite massive DC apartment fire that displaced 76 residents
Duane Campbell, who has lived in the apartments for 17 years, says he’s trying to stay hopeful amid the devastation.
“Words can’t really explain. You don’t wake up and this is something you can plan for. There’s no way. I’m still wrapping my mind around all of it but the only thing I can say is, every day might get easier,” Campbell said. “Today is just the beginning – the end of this, but everything has a silver lining.”
D.C. Fire is holding a news conference Thursday morning to detail which fireworks are allowed and which are not in the District, ahead of the July 4th holiday.
“This was home,” Campbell said. “I raised three kids here and it’s so unfortunate. So many things…memories that are never going to be replaced. But you put one foot in front of the other. You keep going. That’s life. It throws you curveballs you take a hit and keep going.”
Meanwhile, Minkoff Restoration shoring up the damaged apartments and guiding residents in safely to recover what they can.
“We’ve been working hard to get the building safe so we can do that. Wrapping the building with a security fence, boarding the windows, locking everything so nobody can get into each other’s apartments,” Guy Tull with Minkoff Restoration said.
Tull also wants to remind people how crucial renter’s insurance is – a lot of these folks didn’t have it and are at a loss for what to do next.
The Red Cross is working to help those impacted.
Jaemi Theatre Company, a new AAPI-led theater company based in Washington, DC, officially launches this spring with its inaugural project, BAAL, a staged reading at the 2026 Atlas INTERSECTIONS Festival on Friday, March 6, at 7:30 PM at the Atlas Performing Arts Center.
Founded by Artistic Director Youri Kim and Artistic Associate Juyoung Koh, Jaemi Theatre was born out of a recognition that DC, one of the largest theater markets in the United States, had no company dedicated to centering Asian stories or led by Asian artists. The name “Jaemi” comes from a Korean word meaning “fun,” and in its Sino-Korean form, 在美, means both “to live in America” and “to live in beauty.”
“I kept hearing from companies that it was hard to find Asian actors, and I heard it so often that I started to believe it myself,” said Youri Kim. “But through building community with other AAPI theater artists in the area, I realized the talent was always here. What was missing was the infrastructure to connect us. Jaemi is that infrastructure.”
BAAL, an original work written by Youri Kim (not to be confused with Bertolt Brecht’s 1918 play of the same name), is a body horror drama set in a dystopian city where the air is toxic and birth is outlawed. In the city of Baal, citizens are forced into an impossible choice: terminate or sacrifice a family member. The play uses the language of biological mutation and bodily control to examine how systems of power decide who gets to exist and on what terms, questions that resonate deeply within AAPI and immigrant communities navigating structures that seek to define, contain, and assimilate them. The staged reading features a cast of seven and an original sound design.
BAAL plays as a staged reading Friday, March 6, 2026, at 7:30 PM in Lab Theatre II at the Atlas Performing Arts Center (1333 H St NE, Washington, DC). Tickets ($29.75) are available online.
Looking ahead, Jaemi Theatre plans to host a founding party and fundraiser this fall, and will launch an Asian Writer Play Submission program in the second half of 2026. The program will pair playwrights from selected Asian countries with Asian playwrights based in DC for a workshop development process, building a pipeline that connects diasporic voices across borders.
For more information, visit yourikimdirector.com or follow @jaemitheatre on Instagram.
About Jaemi Theatre Company
Jaemi Theatre is a newly formed AAPI-led performance initiative based in Washington, DC, co-founded by Artistic Director Youri Kim and Artistic Associate Juyoung Koh. “Jaemi” is Korean for “fun” and, in its Sino-Korean form, means “to live in America” and “to live in beauty.” The company creates interdisciplinary performance rooted in diasporic imagination and radical storytelling. Jaemi is a home for the unfinished and the unassimilated, where performance holds contradiction without needing to resolve it.
Sunday, March 1, 2026 6:36AM
SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — The San Francisco Ballet board has voted to cancel its upcoming performances at the Kennedy Center.
The company is scheduled for a four-day run in Washington D.C. in May.
Petition urges SF Ballet to cancel Kennedy Center tour stop as company opens 2026 season
Last year, Pres. Donald Trump overhauled the Kennedy Center’s board, including naming himself the chairman.
That led several artists to cancel scheduled performances.
A statement from SF Ballet says the group “looks forward to performing for Washington, D.C. audiences in the future.”
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At 97, Veteran Harley Wero wasn’t up for a trip to the nation’s capital, so volunteers from the Western North Dakota honor flight brought the trip to him. Wero, his wife Muriel and their daughter Jennifer got to experience Washington, DC, without ever leaving their home.
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