Fire Damages Theater Sought as School Site

A fire has damaged the city’s historic Fox Theater, a complex that the mayor wants to use for a charter high school.

Firefighters suspect a vagrant of having set the fire Sunday morning on the second floor of the ramshackle building. A crew of 46 firefighters had flames under control in less than half an hour. No one was injured, and the fire was contained to the empty office.

A local developer has proposed to renovate the old theater complex, turning the space into a cabaret-style venue, and the commercial space around it into a retail center and home for the Oakland School for the Arts. The estimated $24-million project is awaiting City Council approval.