By Dan Klepal
Enquirer staff writer

LOWER PRICE HILL - Fire investigators will have to wait at least a week more - and possibly two - before they can get inside and try to figure out why the Queen City Barrel Co. warehouse ignited into one of the largest fires in the city's recent history.

Demolition work continued Wednesday on large portions of the building deemed unstable. That work will continue for at least a week before investigators can enter and start looking for a cause and origin of the massive fire Aug. 19 in the 400,000-square-foot warehouse that held between 40,000 and 50,000 barrels, some containing up to an inch of potentially hazardous chemicals.

But even when they get in, there's no guarantee investigators will find any answers. Cincinnati Fire Capt. Dan Rottmueller, the city's lead investigator, said it will be like trying to put together a huge jigsaw puzzle without knowing if one has all the pieces.

"At this point, we don't even know what's in there," Rottmueller said. "We'll look at the building piece by piece. We'll look at the debris as it comes out. Right now we're watching the demolition, trying to make sure as little of the building is taken down as necessary and looking at the different burn patterns to see how the fire might have burned."

Rottmueller said the three weeks since the fire is one of the longest periods he has had to wait before beginning a fire investigation. "With some fires, you just have to sit back and wait," he said. "But we've made a lot of progress down there."

Investigators also have interviewed about 35 witnesses and reviewed videotape of the fire. But they don't have enough evidence to determine a cause or origin of the blaze, which caused an estimated $5 million in damage.

Once they get inside, the investigation should take between a week and 10 days.

"When it's all over, we'll have to put all the pieces together and try to determine the cause," Rottmueller said. "The problem is, we don't know how many pieces are left."

After investigators are finished, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will take control of the site to make sure it is cleaned up properly.

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E-mail dklepal@enquirer.com