MONROE (WTOL) - The cause of the Dec. 5 fire that destroyed the Nortel Lanes bowling alley on North Telegraph Road has been ruled undetermined.
Lt. Thomas Ford of the Monroe Fire Department, in cooperation with Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and Michigan State Police (MSP) fire inspectors, led the investigation into the possible cause and origin of blaze.
The fire at 611 N. Telegraph Road destroyed the 66,000-square-foot complex and presented a combined $8 million loss.
The team investigation, which began Dec. 6, consisted of employee and witness interviews, canvassing of local businesses to obtain video surveillance footage, and gathering information/points of data prior to the fire.
It is the combined opinion of the Monroe Fire Department, ATF, MSP, Private Insurance Investigator and Insurance Engineers, that the exact cause and origin could not be established due to the massive destruction by the fire.
Employee and witness accounts, as well as video evidence from inside and outside the bowling alley, corroborated the investigation’s findings.
“I would first like to thank all those that came out to help with this investigation," Monroe Fire Chief Robert Wight said in a news release. "As we anticipated, the intense damage from this fire made it very difficult to determine the exact cause. The investigation team spent several days long digging through the debris to isolate a cause and origin but were unable to find anything definitive at this time.”
