Riverdale shut off water to fire suppression system a year before Noke Van Co. went up in flames. City and fire officials knew the whole time.

Before the fire that devastated Noke Van Co. and the company’s warehouse at Riverdale, multiple city officials had known for over a year that the entire property was in violation of fire code and was not connected to water for fire suppression, hundreds of pages of inspections and emails obtained by Cardinal News through the Virginia Freedom of Information Act show. 

The 125-acre industrial center was purchased by Ed Walker in April 2023. Workers for Riverdale turned off the valves connecting water to the center’s fire suppression systems before the April fire, according to a July 2025 statement released by Riverdale Southeast LLC.

Noke Van Co., a customized van business, is now housed in another building at Riverdale, where it is rebuilding after losing millions of dollars in property to the fire. 

Dozens of businesses and tenants remain at Riverdale despite the fact that water supply issues have not yet been resolved, according to fire inspection reports from July 2025.

The April fire was electrical in nature and began in a van inside the warehouse. 

It later became clear, through a Roanoke Fire-EMS report and a statement from Riverdale, that the water that would have connected to fire suppression systems, such as the sprinklers in the warehouse, had been turned off more than a year before the fire — unbeknownst to Noke Van’s owner, Justin VanBlaricom. Riverdale said in that July statement that the water had been cut off because the system was “broken and inoperable.”

VanBlaricom owns the business with his wife, Keri, and Josh Yerton.

City officials were aware in February 2024 of fire suppression system shutdown 

On Feb. 2, 2024, the fire chief and city manager at the time were made aware through an email sent by the Western Virginia Water Authority that the water to Riverdale’s fire suppression systems had been cut off since Jan. 11, 2024. 

Just two weeks later, a notice of violation was sent to Riverdale after a fire inspection report found that all units at the development were in violation of fire code.

The following timeline of communications and reports surrounding the fire suppression system at Riverdale is based on documents obtained through FOIA and from conversations with key people involved.

After receiving the documents, Cardinal News sent questions to Walker, the city of Roanoke and Roanoke Fire-EMS. Walker did not answer two emails and a text message during July and August. Carol Corbin, communications manager for the city, stated that, to the city’s understanding, the “matter remains under an investigation.”

“At this time, we are not in a position to provide further details,” Corbin wrote in an email.

Mayor Joe Cobb also declined to answer questions, stating via email last week, “The City of Roanoke understands the significance of this situation and the concerns it raises. However, at this time, we cannot share additional details.”

It’s unclear at this time which investigations remain active. The fire marshal’s report on the blaze stated that the investigation was closed. VanBlaricom said recently he has not received updates on any investigations led by insurance companies.

April 2023: Ed Walker buys Riverdale

In 2023, Walker purchases the property from Industrial Development and Investment Co. An agreement is made with the Roanoke Economic Development Authority that pledges a $10 million loan from the city. Walker has plans to invest another $50 million into the industrial center’s redevelopment. 

The industrial center sits in Southeast Roanoke, right off the Roanoke River and at the base of Mill Mountain.

The industrial center was once home to the American Viscose plant, which closed in 1958 after employing thousands in the Roanoke Valley for almost 100 years. Walker buys the land with a plan to turn the property into commercial and residential projects, and spaces dedicated to the arts. 

Nov. 10, 2023: Fire department responds to water flow alarm at Noke Van Co.

Roanoke Fire-EMS crews, including Capt. Brian Wasson, arrive at Noke Van Co. after security heard a water flow alarm sounding and saw water coming from a drain outside, according to a report from the department.

Noke Van’s VanBlaricom said in an interview in July that he had mistakenly turned the power off to the air compressor system, which triggered the alarm.

At that time, VanBlaricom said, the sprinkler system had water and worked. 

Feb. 2, 2024: Notifications made that water to fire suppression systems is cut off to Riverdale

Fire Chief David Hoback and then-City Manager Bob Cowell receive word via email from the Western Virginia Water Authority’s executive director, Michael McEvoy, that water had been cut off to Riverdale’s fire suppression system since Jan. 11, 2024. 

Later that same day, Hoback notifies the fire marshal’s office and other staff of the outage. 

The city did not answer questions about what prompted these notifications. 

Feb. 9, 2024: Riverdale begins evicting tenants as a safety measure

Matt Clark, chief operating officer at Riverdale Southeast LLC, sends an email to Fire Marshal Rebecca Smith, Deputy Fire Marshal Bobby Russell, city planning manager Wayne Leftwich, and city building inspectors Tommy Hahn and Frank Haley, detailing safety measures that had been taken at Riverdale. 

“As we’ve mentioned already, everyone is aware of the derelict facilities Riverdale took on with the purchase of the property earlier this year,” Clark writes. “Conditions are as bad (and probably worse) than everyone expected.”

This email mentions a “recent failure of the fire main.” The city did not answer questions about what that “recent failure” was.

The “safety measures” Clark details include evicting tenants “engaged in criminal activity” and “high-hazard tenants,” including those involved in chemical processing and truck and auto repair. 

He also notes debris removal, environmental sampling, “major repairs” to several sprinkler systems and enhanced fire watch — increased surveillance to prevent a fire — and says that padlocks had been ordered for the post indicator valves. These valves are used to control the flow of water to a fire suppression system. 

Justin Biller, a fire safety consultant and former Virginia state fire marshal, said via text message that in general, the valves either need to be locked or have a tamper switch that will set off the fire alarm. He said Virginia Construction Code requires this.

Clark also notes that “private hydrants have been checked and temporarily marked out of service.”

At this point, Balzer and Associates and EC Pace are “engaged” by the city to design and implement “new water mains,” according to the Feb. 9 email from Clark. The city did not answer questions regarding whether those contractors are working on the water main replacement project now. 

Feb. 16, 2024: Notice of property-wide violation sent to Riverdale. Recent interviews show some former tenants knew the fire suppression system was shut off.

Roanoke Fire-EMS sends Riverdale’s Clark notice of a violation that had been identified during a “complaint investigation.”

The city did not respond to questions about the nature of the complaint that prompted the investigation.

Inspector Tommy Nash finds that the water supply to fire suppression systems was not functioning properly. The notice says that it is the “building owner and/or occupant’s responsibility” to correct violations.

The fire inspection report states that this violation was entered for the entire property at Riverdale and says that the violation would be rechecked on or after March 25, 2024.

“Prior to the issuance of the violation the Fire Marshal’s Office and building officials visited site to ensure fire watch procedures were understood and discuss water supply status,” reads a remediation timeline that was sent to City Manager Valmarie Turner by Smith on June 12, 2025. “Fire watch is to be maintained until the water issue[s] have been resolved.” Turner became Roanoke’s city manager in January 2025 after Cowell resigned from the position in June 2024.

Fire watch involves continuous surveillance to detect early signs of fire and is required by the Virginia Fire Prevention Code when a sprinkler is inoperable.

Biller said that a fire watch is generally “not intended to be a long-term solution” and that it’s “very difficult” to do correctly because the monitoring is meant to be ongoing. He said fire watches are usually implemented when a repair will take more than one workday to complete.

Tim Witt is president of the Roanoke chapter of the National Railway Historical Society, which was a former tenant of Riverdale. The society had been housed at Riverdale since 1980, but Witt joined the society in 2019, he said. In September 2024, the society moved to a property in Norwich.

Witt said he was aware that there was not a fire suppression or sprinkler system in the building and was not concerned. It was an old pump house, previously used to pump water from the Roanoke River for use at the plant. He said the society mostly used it for storage and a workshop.

He said he often saw security making rounds throughout the property after hours, with markings on their vehicles from what he thought might have been a security contractor company. It’s unclear if those individuals were tasked with conducting a fire watch or other security measures. 

John Davis, another former tenant who built camper vans, said his company had been at Riverdale since 1989 or 1990.

He said that he had been told by a Riverdale maintenance technician that water pipes in the industrial center had burst because they hadn’t been drained, prior to Walker’s purchase of the property, and that some hadn’t been repaired. He said some time after that, the main water valves to the fire suppression were turned off.

“We knew that and we were just very, very careful,” Davis said. He said he kept fire extinguishers every 20 feet or so, knowing that fire hydrants had been shut off.

Feb. 19, 2024

Ed Walker sends an email to Hoback, Cowell, Leftwich and the fire marshal’s office requesting a meeting to discuss fire protection improvements.

“Because of the importance of the subject I think we should set up an additional workshop whereby I and other significant [Riverdale] colleagues can work together to get a great plan in place,” Walker writes. He also says that many of the recipients of the email would be meeting with Clark at Riverdale the following day. It’s not clear what the purpose of the meeting was.

March 26, 2024

Roanoke Fire’s Smith emails Hoback to fill him in on a conversation with Clark. It’s not clear when that conversation took place. A meeting is scheduled with Balzer and Associates, EC Pace and others to plan the layout of the new water main. A cost analysis is being conducted.

“Unsure [of] when work will begin but pushing hard to do it ASAP,” Smith writes.

May 1, 2024

The fire marshal’s office asks for an update on the status of the water system, and a Riverdale representative says the “action plan is still in progress,” according to a timeline sent from the fire marshal’s office to Turner’s office the following year.

July 1, 2024: ‘High risk of fire damage’ after hydrant tagged out of service

Lt. Andrew Hall with Roanoke Fire-EMS sends an email to then-Battalion Chief Tom Gherman notifying him that a fire hydrant on River Avenue in front of building 9A2 at Riverdale had been operational at one point but has been tagged out of service. 

Walker did not respond to questions from Cardinal News about this building and whether a tenant was present at the time.

Hall then details other hydrants surrounding the property that could act as water sources if needed, the closest being a hydrant 1,425 feet from the interior of the industrial park. 

“With the green top hydrant out of service, the River AVE section of the park is exposed to a high risk of fire damage due to the time it will take to establish a water supply,” Hall writes. This email is forwarded by Hall to others in the fire marshal’s office and the fire department.

July 2, 2024: A request for capital funds on the ‘huge and expensive’ remediation project

Responding to Smith’s May 1 request for an updated plan for the water supply issues at Riverdale, Nash emails that, from his understanding, the holdup was “the decision of the water authority to replace the line on River Ave or not.”

In early August, Mike McEvoy, executive director of the water authority, said in an interview he was aware of the work going on at Riverdale but did not know what this “holdup” was in reference to. 

Later that afternoon, Nash emails Rebecca Smith, and CC’ed others in the fire department, to update them on a conversation with Clark about the water supply issue progress at Riverdale.

“Everyone involved understands the urgency and severity of the situation; however, this is a huge and expensive project that would not be possible for Riverdale to take on alone,” Nash writes.

He writes that the city planning manager, Leftwich, in coordination with the water authority, “has submitted a request for funds as capital improvement.” It’s not clear to whom the request was addressed. According to the email, the water authority is planning to seek bids for “new hydrant locations and new lines for the majority of the complex.”

Biller, the former state fire marshal and former Roanoke County building official, said in a recent interview that it would not be unusual, generally, for a locality to help fund a project such as Riverdale. 

There was no mention of water supply issues at Riverdale in the city’s FY24 budget.

“Chief Hoback was in the original meeting of minds and discussed the desired locations of hydrants,” Nash writes.

Nash also notes that evictions at Riverdale were ongoing, and that the department was working on locating occupied buildings with a “loosely documented tenant list” from when Walker bought the property. 

Between July 2024 and April 2025, all communications regarding Riverdale go quiet between the involved parties, the documents obtained by Cardinal News show. On April 17, 2025, two fire inspections are conducted that note violations related to the lack of water supply.

Multiple inspections are conducted during this 10-month span, which note no violations, although they come during the same period that the water supply is out. 

April 5, 2025: The fire at Noke Van Co.

An electrical fire starts in a Noke Van vehicle, leading to millions of dollars of damage and the business’s relocation to another property within Riverdale. 

A revised origin and cause report is prepared by Assistant Fire Marshal Christopher Hale in April and revised on July 1. “The building had a sprinkler system with a water flow alarm. The property is serviced by private hydrants and supply lines. None of these systems were functional at the time of the incident. A post indicator valve near the building was found to be in the closed position,” the report reads.

Responding firefighters had to connect to a hydrant 900 feet away from the fire to access water.

May 6, 2025

According to a timeline sent to Turner on June 12, outlining progress at Riverdale, the fire marshal’s office conducts a routine fire inspection on May 6.

Inspectors note violations related to sprinklers, fire extinguishers or recordkeeping related to fire suppression in five buildings.

On May 7 and 8, inspections are conducted on eight buildings. Inspection reports list out-of-date sprinkler inspections, lack of inspection records on site, issues with fire extinguishers and the main issue of the water system being offline. 

A May 8 inspection report for building 2C, which is listed as vacant at the time, states that the sprinkler system had not been inspected since 2006.

June 2, 2025

Turner states in an email to Hoback that she and deputy city managers toured Riverdale with Walker in mid-May, and “it was clear” that several businesses were operating there at the time.

“From our conversations — both with you and Mr. Walker — it’s my understanding that the required water connections for fire suppression are not in place. I also understand your team has issued violation notices related to those deficiencies,” Turner writes.

Turner requests a remediation plan for the water supply issue.

June 12, 2025

Smith responds to Turner’s email and request for a remediation plan and says the fire marshal’s office is “working diligently” to complete all inspections of the industrial park. Smith attaches timelines, violations and fire protection systems documents in the email to Turner.

The documentation of fire code violations shows that almost all buildings at Riverdale had fire code violations related to problems with records and permits, power supply, maintenance and alterations, and extension cords, among others. The document was not dated.

Four buildings were listed for having violations of “required water supply” between the months of April and May. From previous fire inspection reports, it’s clear that violations of required water supply applied to all units at Riverdale.

In a fire protection systems document attached to Smith’s email, all but six buildings at Riverdale were listed as lacking an alarm system. The property that Noke Van moved into after the fire was among them.

Also attached are timelines detailing the fire marshal’s office inspections and Riverdale’s own remediation efforts.

The city did not respond to questions asking when this data was gathered or from what sources.

July 7, 2025

Riverdale releases a statement to Cardinal News acknowledging that Riverdale workers had turned off all the valves, but did not specify when.

The statement claims “the historic system was broken and inoperable.” The statement says the owners of Noke Van Co. had not been made aware of the “historic water line failure.”

The fire department has “plans in place,” the statement says, to run a long water line to a further away hydrant, 900 feet away from the blaze, at “higher risk” areas of Riverdale. 

Riverdale’s statement says the company “mistakenly believed” that all of its tenants were aware of the water supply issue.

“We cannot find where Noke Van Co. was put on notice of the historic water line failure,” it reads.

July 15, 2025

Three months after the fire, Noke Van Co. holds a ribbon-cutting for its new location, Building 7A in Riverdale. 

Friends and members of the community see the inside of the new warehouse and hear from VanBlaricom, co-owner Yerton, Mayor Cobb and Eric Sichau, president and CEO of the Roanoke Regional Chamber.

“What could have been a devastating end has instead become an inspiring story of perseverance, grit, hope, and it’s all because of this team, not just these guys, but the whole Noke Vans team,” Cobb says at the event.

VanBlaricom says the support of the local community helped the company get back on its feet in such a short period of time.

“It’s truly remarkable what has gone into getting this up and running as fast as possible,” VanBlaricom says. Customers lost customized vans that were being built for them in the fire, he says.

A fire inspection report dated July 23, 2025, states that Noke Van Co.’s new building is not connected to water for the fire suppression system.

* * *

VanBlaricom said in an interview last week that the building that Noke Van Co. currently occupies had a fire wall and two fire alarm systems installed, which allowed him to obtain a temporary certificate of occupancy. He said he will seek a permanent certificate once the water supply issues are resolved.

He said after the April fire, the fire marshal came to Riverdale to make sure tenants had updated fire safety plans and exit postings. Cardinal News contacted multiple tenants and businesses at Riverdale; some did not respond to calls, and some declined to speak on the record.

McEvoy said last week via email that the water supply system work, which is being handled by a contractor that Riverdale hired, is about 65% done and should be done by the end of the calendar year.

“Again this project is replacing old mains that were privately maintained and past their useful life with new public mains so it is about more than fire suppression,” McEvoy said in an email last week. He said in a later email that with the potential for future subdivision of the property, it “made sense” to designate the new mains as public that will be maintained by the authority.

VanBlaricom said, via text message on Sept. 22, that their insurance has started to pay some claims but that Noke Van has “a long way to go to get back to whole for our customers and employees.” 

“We’re at step two of what feels like 100 steps,” VanBlaricom said.

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Correction 5:40 p.m. Sept. 30: Carol Corbin is Roanoke’s communications manager and Wayne Leftwich is the current city planning manager. Their titles were incorrect in an earlier version of this story.