JAMES CITY COUNTY, Va. — More than a year after an underground fire tore apart a parking lot behind the Williamsburg Premium Outlets, the site remains a gaping crater with little sign of progress.

Last Thanksgiving, News 3 reported on the fire that burned beneath the pavement for more than 100 hours, forcing firefighters to tear up concrete to reach the source. The damage left behind has sat largely untouched ever since.

“It does look like another planet,” said neighbor Victoria Gerousis, whose home sits just behind the site.

Gerousis remembers the uncertainty during the fire, which began Nov. 23 of last year in an underground stormwater retention facility.

“At one point, when everything started spreading here, we were about to leave the house because we didn’t know if it was going to

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