The cause of a garage fire in Seymour remains undetermined, though the fire marshal’s office has a pretty good idea about how it started.
There were no major injuries reported during the Jan. 12 fire, which started on the second floor of a two-story detached garage at 24 Roosevelt Drive.
The roof collapsed, as did the second floor. That cut off access to the structure.
Had there been a loss of life or major injury, the investigation could have included spending big bucks on bringing in heavy machinery to prop up the structure so that investigators could go inside.
But that was not feasible in this investigation, given there were no injuries and the amount of damage was (relatively) small.
So, short of 100 percent certainty, the cause of the garage fire gets officially tagged as undetermined.
That being said, Deputy Fire Marshal Timm Willis said the homeowner was using a bench grinder to work on some metal door hinges on the detached garage’s second floor workshop.
“It was generating a fair amount of sparks,” Willis said.
Those sparks ignited some “wall material” — cloth or paper, perhaps — which the homeowner initially tried to stamp out with his hands.
Unfortunately the fire spread quickly up the wall.
The homeowner then ran out and called 911.
“Based on our interview with him, and then observations made looking through windows and doorways, everything made sense, putting the fire in the second floor, right in that area,” Willis said.
A few rounds of old rifle or handgun ammunition went off during the blaze, but no one was injured.
The man’s house, which was next to the garage, was not damaged.
