| By Big Radio News Staff |

Janesville fire officials say they may never know a definite cause of the fire that destroyed a 26-unit building at Janesville’s Surrey Ridge Apartments.

But a Janesville fire investigator says investigators think the blaze at 2600 E. Racine St. that displaced 55 people July 8 involved a propane torch.

Janesville Fire Department Investigator Robert Kessenich says investigators for Surrey Ridge’s owner and other parties involved tell the fire department it appears a landscaping contractor was using a torch during work.

It’s not clear how the torch might have sparked the fire, but investigators think it got in a pillar built into the apartments’ front entrance facade, and then spread to the attic.

Kessenich says the apartments were built in the late 1960s, which means they’re old enough they did not have fire barriers separating units. He says that allowed the fire to roar through the attic space, turning the building’s upper floors into an inferno by the time firefighters arrived.

Kessenich says massive apartment fires that involve multiple tenants, ownerships, contractors and equipment manufacturers and sellers can turn into complex insurance investigation operations that take weeks to unfold.

He says the investigations are now winding down, and that means the burned-out Surrey Ridge building can now be demolished and cleared away.

Kessenich says the apartment’s owner apparently has found at least a temporary place to live for all 55 people displaced, most in apartment units in Janesville.