The fire that gutted the Captain D’s fast food location on Highway 12 in Starkville last month was determined to be an accident, the Starkville Fire Department tweeted Tuesday morning.
The fire on April 15 started from an electrical short “in the concealed attic space above the south east corner storage room area of the building,” according to the tweet. No one was in the building when the fire started, so no one was injured.
The blaze caused the entire building to cave in and made it difficult for SFD to investigate the cause, Fire Marshal Stein McMullen said.
“(Captain D’s)’ insurance company had to bring in a crane to lift out the HVAC and other parts of the building to make it safe,” he said.
The fire took almost two hours to extinguish, and members of the opening staff arrived while firefighters were at the scene. The restaurant is closed until further notice.
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