JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A State Fire Marshal’s Office report obtained by First Coast News provides new details into the possible cause of a fire that burned for days in downtown Jacksonville and set back development in the entertainment district.

The fire that destroyed the RISE Doro apartment building one year ago this month is now classified as “undetermined,” according to the report. However, the report also mentions “irregular electrical activity” as the “most probable” cause of the fire.

Five days before its first tenants moved in, the RISE Doro apartment building went up in flames. Although no one was hurt, the report states four construction workers and a security guard were at the building when the fire was reported.

Firefighters fought the fire for days and speculation churned over what caught the $60 million building on fire. The former construction director tells First Coast News the fire took place the night before the fire marshal was scheduled to come turn on the system that was set to control the sprinklers.

“We’re all stumped by this,” Scott Macauley said, former RISE Doro director of construction.

The state fire marshal’s report says the cause of the fire is undetermined – that there’s “no conclusive evidence to indicate a specific cause of the fire.” 

“Based upon the fire scene examination, knowledge of fire development, firefighter, and witness statements, coupled with supporting documentation, there was no conclusive evidence to indicate a specific cause of the fire,” the report states. “The first material ignited, and the ignition sequence were not identified to an acceptable level of scientific certainty within the area of origin.”

The report goes on to say, “Due to the area of origin coupled with witness statements, the fire cause is most probable irregular electrical activity within the floor void.”

The report says the recommendation is the case be classified as undetermined. It says the area of origin was determined to be within the floor void of the seventh floor on the southwest quadrant of the building, which faces Maxwell House.

“I’ve been doing this 39 years of my life and I’ve never had a building burn down in my life,” Macauley said.

Macauley was one of at least two people named in the report for bringing up concerns about the building’s electrical wiring, though Macauley says he never said that. The report states the construction project manager claimed the building recently experienced electrical issues and that at least four cleaning workers smelled plastic burning near the seventh floor earlier the day of the fire, one worker describing the odor as electrical cable.

“Was that a ‘thing’ during construction, that you all were paying special close attention to the electrical?” First Coast News asked RISE Doro President Greg Blais.

“No, not at all,” Blaise answered. “It’s easy to kind of draw a conclusion, right, that when a fire starts, your mind goes to, ‘Well probably was electrical,’ if we can’t determine a cause.”

Blais is now looking ahead. He said reconstruction begins in the next two weeks and the design will look the same as the original RISE Doro. The building will now include 85 units priced for workforce housing out of 247 units total. 

“Hindsight, you start Monday morning quarterbacking, what could you have done different?” Blais said. “I don’t know that we would have done anything different. We were proud of what we were doing. Ultimately, no one was hurt. We get to do it again and we’re excited about the rebuild.”

The parking garage was not torn down when much of the building was demolished. The state fire marshal’s report says, “There was no visible fire, heat or smoke damage affecting the garage.”