Fire tore through a large five-story apartment building in Rowlett, Texas, on the shores of Lake Ray Hubbard, on Friday, Dec. 15, 2023.
Federal investigators are now looking into a massive fire that destroyed a five-story apartment building on the shore of Lake Ray Hubbard on Friday.
The Rowlett Fire Department said firefighters were called to The View apartments at about 8:30 p.m. Friday after receiving multiple reports of a fire on the Sapphire Bay peninsula. The apartment complex was still under construction and had no residents, but they were close to allowing occupants to move into their homes next month.
Firefighters from Rowlett, Dallas County, Dallas, Garland, Mesquite, Plano, Richardson, Rockwall, Sachse and Wylie battled the fire for the next 32 hours. Since tapping it out early Sunday morning, Rowlett firefighters have been rotating shifts at the scene to knock out any flare-ups as they occur.
Rowlett Fire said Tuesday that because the fire was so large, they've requested assistance from the ATF to bring state-of-the-art equipment and personnel to investigate the fire's origin.
Get top local stories in DFW delivered to you every morning. Sign up for NBC DFW's News Headlines newsletter.
Rowlett Fire said this type of response and assistance is normal for a fire of this size and that determining the cause of the fire may take several days.
Texas Sky Ranger spotted a truck from the ATF at the complex around midday.
There were no reported injuries related to fighting the fire. The public is still asked to avoid the area.
