Fire officials are confident they have located where the blaze that destroyed The Butterfly and Warsaw Tool Supply Inc. started Sunday, but have not yet determined a cause for the nearly $1 million fire.

Warsaw Fire Chief Ken Shepherd said during a morning press conference that investigators are leaning toward "accidental in nature" at this time but have not ruled out any possibilities.

An accelerant detection canine spent about 2-1/2 hours in the burned structure Monday and found "no unusual or unexplainable accelerants" in the building. The dog did "hit" on the area where vehicles were parked, Shepherd said, but that was to be expected.

Bringing in the dog was "one step in the right direction in ruling out an arson case," Shepherd said. He said the dog was called in only because of the high dollar value of the loss.

The combined damage for the businesses' buildings and contents is preliminarily set at $990,000, but that loss could rise when inventory is determined, Shepherd said. Insurance adjusters and investigators were on the scene this morning.

Shepherd said it was determined Monday that the fire started in the east back room of The Butterfly and spread through a crack to the tool company.

"Today, we plan to pull all the debris off the floor, clean the floor completely and stand up any wall or ceiling pieces we can to see if the fire burned low or high," Shepherd said. He added that the better part of the day will be spent just getting the area cleaned out and ready to look for a cause.

"I feel really good today," Shepherd said. "We know where it started. At least we have a place to go ... I think we are making progress." He compared the work planned for today with an archaeological dig with an attempt to rebuild the area.

"We'll know more when we get the floor cleaned up and the walls up." Shepherd said. "Maybe even later on today or tomorrow we'll be able to confirm the area."

In addition to actually working at the scene, Shepherd said photographs taken by Times-Union photographer Gary Nieter from the start of the fire and into the day helped indicate where the fire started and are "very, very important to this case."

Shepherd said the firefighters were in a defensive mode for the first two to three hours because "the fire controlled us." He believes the fire was under control by about 9 a.m. Sunday.

The wind that kicked up during a storm that moved in about 7 a.m. made the fire burn faster and caused the smoke problem to the east to be worse that it would otherwise have been, Shepherd said. He dispelled any rumors that the fire was ignited by a lightning strike since the storm didn't start until about two hours after the fire was reported.

More than 100 firefighters from eight departments worked to extinguish the blaze. The Butterfly is a total loss, Shepherd said, but there was no fire damage to the main floor of Warsaw Tool Supply Inc. However, that area sustained heavy smoke, heat and water damage and it is not known how much of the contents will be salvageable. [[In-content Ad]]