A cause has been determined in Tuesday’s fire that resulted in extensive damage to Power Lift in Jefferson.

The Jefferson Fire Department conducted an investigation into the cause of a fire at Power Lift in Jefferson. Fire Chief Jack Williams says the fire is believed to have originated in an oven in the manufacturing part of the facility. He believes the cause of the fire is either the oven was left on or there was an electrical short in the oven. Williams adds that the fire was accidental in nature and resulted between $500,000 to $1 million in damages. The factory portion of the facility sustained the heaviest damage. Power Lift General Manager Chris Conner talks about other areas of the business were also affected by the fire.

“We’ve had some orders that were ready to go out the door that product within those orders were damaged. Right now we’re trying to go through and salvage some of that product and see what can be salvaged (and) see what needs to be re-made. Upcoming orders or orders that were on the books yet to be made and that’s going to extend the time period for them to get manufactured.”

The State Fire Marshal’s office was contacted, but they were not involved in the investigation.

The Jefferson and Grand Junction Fire departments, along with the Jefferson Police Department, Greene County Sheriff’s office and Greene County Emergency Medical Services responded to the incident around 4:30am. No one was in the building at the time of the incident and no one was hurt.

Conner adds that they’ve never encountered a situation like this before and says it’s going to be a process before everything is completely back up and running.