The spectacular fire that destroyed a popular Gwinnett County restaurant was sparked by old electrical equipment.
Dreamland BBQ, on Peachtree Parkway, burned last week, the building declared a total loss after its roof collapsed.
Now fire investigators have determined what caused the fire and where it started.
"Investigators have found that there were old transformers from a previous occupant in the attic," says Gwinnett Fire Lieutenant Colin Rhoden. "That was arcing at the time of the fire and it seemed to ignite the structural members."
That arcing caused the wooded beams in the attic to catch fire. By the time the restaurant manager noticed the smoke, the fire had already spread to the point where the building's roof was about to collapse.
As for the transformers, "they were not being used by the current occupants of the building," Rhoden tells WSB. "They were from another restaurant that had been there previously.
"They were hooked into the electrical panel, but they weren't being serviced," says Rhoden. "It was nothing that was connected to the neon for Dreamland BBQ."
Rhoden says the restaurant manager was able to get everyone out before the fire spread, allowing firefighters to battle the fire from outside, rather than inside the building. With the roof collapse imminent, Rhoden says if fire crews had to enter the restaurant to locate occupants, it could have turned into something far worse.
No one was injured in the fire. The building was a total loss.