Authorities: Forest shopping center fire not arson

A camera kept in a Lynchburg woman’s car in case of a crash or other emergency gave investigators evidence needed to pinpoint the origin of a fire that destroyed a strip mall in Forest last week.

Officials announced Thursday that discarded smoking materials likely caused the fire. Bedford Fire Marshall John Jennings credited Laura Layton’s photos with aiding the investigation.

Layton was inside one of the businesses at the strip mall, IC Studios tattoo shop, when an employee from the nearby Goodwill store ran over last Saturday with the news that the mall was on fire. When the shop’s occupants evacuated, Layton grabbed her camera and began snapping photographs.

“It’s not something you ever really expect to happen,” Layton said in an interview Thursday afternoon.

Investigators believe her photographs were the first taken at the scene.

Several were displayed at the news conference, showing the ashen remains of cardboard boxes and the fire engulfing the wooden deck of the Blackwater Bike Shop. They also showed the burn patterns pointing to the spot of origin and a tattoo shop employee using a fire hose to try to extinguish the blaze, among other images.

In the seven minutes it took firefighters to arrive, the fire had spread to the building’s eaves and beyond, consuming clues to the point of origin, Jennings said. Layton’s photographs were credited with saving the county countless hours in determining the origin of the fire.

Layton said she picked up the camera to document the fire just in case photos came in handy later. She had no idea how fast and how far the fire would grow.

“This is devastating for everyone who owned businesses there,” she said. “These were small, local, family-owned businesses. Most of these people who ran the businesses are like family. It was devastating to watch their livelihoods go up in flames.”

The fire, which began shortly before 6 p.m. Saturday, destroyed California Nails salon, Scene 3 Boardshop, Blackwater Bike Shop, a Healthy Inspirations fitness center, a Virginia Farm Bureau Insurance location and IC Studios in the Jefferson Business Center, which stood off U.S. 221 between Graves Mill Road and Cottontown Road in Forest.

Jennings said the blaze began in a pile of about six cardboard boxes broken down next to the porch. From there, the fire spread under the deck and ignited a pile of old bicycle tires. The heat caused by the burning rubber made the fire climb and burn into the wooden eaves of the building. Then, it burned without impediment through the open attic space while the first firefighters began trying to extinguish the visible flames.

The exact cause of the fire will never be known with absolute certainty, Jennings said.

“I feel like there is a good possibility that it may have been related to smoking, that someone lit a cigarette with a match and tossing the match aside served as the ignition source,” he said.

More than three dozen cigarette butts were found in the vicinity of the bike shop’s back porch, Jennings said. He said the shop’s owner was helping his last customer of the day when the fire broke out.

Jennings said while he can’t absolutely rule out arson, there are no indicators that the fire was intentionally set.

Layton’s photographs also showed that the fire was not electrical in origin, as the building’s conduits weren’t involved in the initial moments of the fire, Jennings said.

“By studying these pictures, a lot of questions were able to be answered about how the fire initiated,” he said. “The ignition source could have been any type of open flame. … I don’t know if we would be able to answer those questions without these photographs.”