South Park fire started on ground floor, Charlotte chief says. What we know.

With the deadly South Park construction fire investigation ongoing, officials say the origin appears to be an area where a spray-foam insulation trailer was being used.

According to family and their supervisor, two men who were trapped on the sixth floor of the structure Thursday were killed after initially being reported missing.

The five-alarm fire, which burned uncontrolled and threatened to spread to nearby structures for a couple hours, began around 9 a.m. The apartment building under construction, rising above two floors of garage, eventually collapsed.

Charlotte Fire Department Chief Reginald Johnson said the fire started on the ground floor of the multi-story apartment building under construction.

The fire, Johnson said, was an accident.

As The Charlotte Observer reported Thursday, a construction crew member’s 911 call reporting a trailer had caught fire inside the garage summoned the first firefighters, according to emergency radio traffic obtained by The Charlotte Observer via Broadcastify.

“I’ve never ever seen a fire of this magnitude,” Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Johnny Jennings said at a Friday news conference.

The cause of the initial spark is unclear and fire investigators are still at the scene, Johnson said.

The blaze was able to spread so rapidly because of a lack of finished walls in the building, and the breeze that carried the unrestricted flames and ash, Johnson said.

The state’s Occupational Safety and Health officers are investigating the accident. This type of investigation could take up to six months to complete said Erin Wilson, a spokesperson for the North Carolina Department of Labor.

This story was originally published May 19, 2023 at 5:21 PM.

Anna Douglas

The Charlotte Observer

704-358-5078

Anna Douglas is The Charlotte Observer’s deputy managing editor and previously worked as an investigative reporter and news editor in the newsroom. Prior to joining the Observer, she worked as a local news reporter for The (Rock Hill) Herald and as a congressional correspondent in Washington, D.C., for McClatchy. Anna is a past recipient of the South Carolina Press Association’s Journalist of the Year award and the Charlotte Society of Professional Journalists’ Outstanding Journalism Award. She’s a South Carolina native, a graduate of Winthrop University, and a past fellow of the Dori Maynard Diversity Leadership Program, sponsored by the Society of Professional Journalists. Anna has lived in Charlotte since May 2017.

Kallie Cox

The Charlotte Observer

Kallie Cox covers public safety for The Charlotte Observer. They grew up in Springfield, Illinois and attended school at SIU Carbondale. They reported on police accountability and LGBTQ immigration barriers for the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. And, they previously worked at The Southern Illinoisan before moving to Charlotte. Support my work with a digital subscription