Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - It has been nearly a week since a deadly four-alarm fire broke out at 745 Main Street in Downtown Buffalo that killed 37-year-old Buffalo firefighter Jason Arno.
As the City of Buffalo and the Buffalo Fire Department continues preparations for funeral services for Arno later this week, crews continue to investigate the scene and get better details into what started the fatal fire, and how it spread and intensified so quickly.
"The investigation on Main Street is continuous and it is ongoing," said Buffalo Fire Commissioner William Renaldo on Tuesday during a press briefing at City Hall. "As you know, we're working in close coordination and cooperation with a number of agencies, including the ATF, State Fire, FDNY and, of course, our own fire investigation unit from the Buffalo Fire Department. It is a slow, methodical, painstaking operation with the goal of determining the cause and origin of fire. The safety of our workers, our partner agencies are our primary concern, and that's why it is taking maybe a little longer as we go through the process."
Renaldo adds that a large amount of the area has been covered already, and a number of interviews have been conducted relating to the fire. Branch Chief of the National Response Team for the ATF, Walter Shaw says they have completed over 100 interviews, and have taken out several items of evidence that they want to further examine.
"This is Day 6 of our investigation, we've come a long ways," said Walter Shaw, Branch . "From the exterior, you may not be able to realize that what's going on, as we speak, is an excavation of the first level and the basement level of the structure. As we spoke before, that structure was built around 1900, so it has some unique building construction characteristics, and we have to mitigate some hazards as we go along. ... We've created a computer fire model, with the assistance of our Fire Research Lab in Ammendale, Maryland, of fire progression and fire growth within the structure to help us more determine where the origin of the fire may have been."
As for the people interviewed by investigators, Shaw says the number of people they've talked with is quite extensive.
"We interviewed the first responding firemen to get their firsthand accounts of fire conditions and what was going on with the building at the time of the fire. We interviewed the 9-1-1 caller, we interviewed the workers that were on scene doing some work at that time. We, of course, interviewed the building owner, we interviewed the gas and electric company providers to see if there was any history of any issues with the building itself," he said. "And we're continuing to do neighborhood canvases to collect any video that may show events leading up to the fire and after the fire, so that we can create an accurate timeline of the fire events."
Later on in the week, as soon as Wednesday, some heavy machinery will be brought on site to move some of the heavier debris in order to help move the process along.
"We intend on employing some heavy equipment at the rear of the structure to demolish a wall and to gain access to a now-covered area of debris," Shaw explained. "We would like to excavate that debris and look underneath to see if there's anything that we need to take a closer look at. So these scenes, again, are lengthy, but we do see an end in sight. We are more than halfway through with what we want to do on the scene, so we will continue to work methodically, and using the scientific method with all of our partners and all of our resources of the National Response Team, to try to determine what exactly happened there."
As of right now, there continues to remain a number of theories, as to what could have caused the fire to the three-story structure at 745 Main Street. As Shaw and Renaldo both explained, investigators continue to eliminate a number of different theories as they go along. At this time, though, there has been no determination into the cause and origin of the fire.
"As you know, that's a costume shop that primarily encompassed the space, and they utilized all sorts of equipment, such as iron presses, heat cutters, things like that to cut fabric. So we look at all these things to see if they may have contributed to the fire cause accidentally, and to see what their situation is with those different pieces of equipment," Shaw said. "We've also utilized an accelerant detection canine, for example. It's just a common routine thing that we do, and the dog has ran the structure of several times. So we're looking for anything that stands out as a fire cause, and then what we do, our next step is tried to either eliminate or include that fire cause as something that contributed to the fire."
Shaw believes the investigation will carry over into next week, where they are hopeful to have a conclusion around that time.
More from Tuesday's press briefing at City Hall is available in the player below: