Almost an entire city block went up in flames and, one week later, the Nashville, Arkansas Fire Department still can't decide what started it. They have ideas, but nothing concrete.
One building owner believes crews, demolishing the buildings, destroyed any evidence to find a cause. He's hired his own attorney and team of forensic investigators to look into the reasons his building is now in shambles.
The buildings went up in 1905 and flames gutted them just one week ago. Now, after standing in downtown Nashville for more than 100 years, these buildings are reduced to rubble, but one owner says it didn't have to be like this.
"This is something like going to the doctor with a cut on your foot and having them take your whole leg off," says building owner Carl Johnson
Carl Johnson owns the last building that caught fire and the first torn down.
"We were told all we'd have to do is re-roof and this is what we came back to," says Johnson.
Johnson is working with his own investigators now to find out why demolition teams tore his building down. And why no one asked if he wanted to try and salvage the half-a-million dollars worth of merchandise left inside.
"We have not found one item that suffered fire damage. There was some water damage and smoke damage but mostly demolition," says Johnson.
He plans to go as far as it takes to get answers, even if that means taking the city to court.
"We didn't tear down these walls! THEY did. And they didn't have to be torn down," says Johnson.
But city leaders say Johnson needs to back down and remove his signs.
"Even if my house was on fire or your house was on fire, those guys that make those calls, they don't do it lightly," says Nashville Mayor Mike Reese.
"And I explained to him this was our whole life, here," says Johnson.
A whole life he's putting together piece by piece.
A forensics team will be helping Carl Johnson dig more valuables out Friday as they investigate how secure his building could have been before the demolition, and if it really did need to be torn down.
