Fire destroys Nottoway Plantation House in Louisiana

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Flames ripped done a monolithic mansion successful Louisiana, destroying overmuch of the historical operation that was utilized arsenic a plantation location erstwhile it was completed successful 1859, authorities said.

The occurrence that engulfed the Nottoway Plantation House connected Thursday devastated the gathering on the Mississippi River betwixt Baton Rouge and New Orleans, Iberville Parish President Chris Daigle said connected societal media. Nearly a twelve occurrence departments from surrounding towns battled the blaze, helium said. No injuries were reported.

Its website describes it arsenic "the South's largest remaining antebellum mansion." Daigle called it "a cornerstone of our tourism system and a tract of nationalist significance."

Nottoway Plantation was built successful the 1850s by John Hampden Randolph and sits connected a 31-acre spot successful White Castle, connected the borderline of the Mississippi River.

The 53,000-square-foot location connected a erstwhile sweetener plantation astir 65 miles northwest of New Orleans had a three-story rotunda adorned with elephantine achromatic columns and hand-carved Italian marble fireplaces, according to a statement connected its website.

Up until the fire, the mansion was utilized arsenic a depository and wedding and lawsuit venue.

The mansion's owner, Louisiana lawyer Dan Dyess, said successful a written connection that the occurrence had led to a "total loss" aft each the clip and wealth helium invested successful the building.

"We are devastated and heartbroken for this loss," helium said. "This was my imagination that has present been dashed."

Photos from section quality outlets showed a elephantine orangish partition of occurrence consuming the precocious information of the rotunda and sending a plume of heavy fume into the sky.

The occurrence has been contained, and nary different properties were harmed, said Maj. Monty Migliacio of the Iberville Parish Sheriff's Office. Other structures connected the grounds person been preserved, parish officials said.

"We are astatine the opening phases of the investigation, we don't cognize however the occurrence began and our nonsubjective is to find however it started," Louisiana Office of State Fire Marshal Public Affairs Director Ken Pastorick said.

In a connection connected Facebook, Daigle touched connected the structure's past of radical injustice during a clip erstwhile enslaved Black radical helped physique the location and run the sweetener plantation that surrounded it. In 1860, 155 enslaved radical were held astatine the property, according to National Park Service records.

"While its aboriginal past is undeniably tied to a clip of large injustice, implicit the past respective decades it evolved into a spot of reflection, education, and dialogue," Daigle said.

"Since the 1980s, it has welcomed visitors from astir the satellite who came to admit its architecture and face the legacies of its era," helium added. "It stood arsenic some a cautionary monument and a testament to the value of preserving past — adjacent the achy parts — truthful that aboriginal generations tin larn and turn from it."

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