Junction City’s Acting Fire Chief Rick Rook says the investigative stage into what caused the fire at the Bluffs Apartment complex is beginning.

Rook said Tuesday night that several Junction City Fire Department investigators are assisting, and the State Fire Marshall’s Office has been contacted for assistance. “They brought in their response trailer and equipment, and also we’re reaching out to the ATF to possibly come in and give us some assistance tomorrow ( Wednesday ). We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us, not only on the property side but also with interviews and hopefully come to a conclusion on what started this fire.”

The Junction City Police and Geary County Sheriff’s Department are assisting with security at the site.

Rook said he thought the plan on Wednesday for ATF would be to primarily use some of their investigators to help do interviews.  All of those who were in the building or lived there will need to be interviewed. Some of that began Tuesday night.

Rook feels the damage estimate will probably run in the millions of dollars range.

The Junction City Fire Department used approximately 25 to 30 of their personnel to fight the fire, and another ten came from Manhattan. Rook estimated probably at least another 10 to 15 firefighters from Grandview Plaza and Geary County helped battle the blaze.

Rook noted there was a significant property damage loss from the fire, but it could have been worse. “The firefighters on scene did a great job getting water on the fire. The weather helped us a little bit today. We didn’t have near the windy conditions we’ve had over the past couple of weeks. They did an excellent job containing it.”

Residents of the building that burned received assistance from either the Red Cross or Fort Riley after the fire. Twenty-six of the 28 apartment units in the building had tenants.