Friday morning will mark one week since a massive fire swept through a building at the Park Jefferson apartments in South Bend.

The flames destroyed 28 of the building’s 40 apartments, pushing the overall damage total beyond $600,000. Investigators however still have yet determined what caused the inferno.

The problem, fire inspectors say, is the extent of the damage. That in turn has made it very challenging to analyze the scene; one most investigators say is like a book you just can't finish.

"Fires are like stories. They all start from the end and we have to try and take it back to the beginning. We do that just by following the footsteps that the fire patterns leave us,” South Bend Fire Marshall Federico Rodriguez said.

Thursday marked day seven for South Bend’s team of four fire inspectors, which have taken more than 1,000 photos and covered every square-inch of ground. Unfortunately, it’s turned-up very few leads.

"The whole deal with this job is just observing. We look at the fire, look at the people, look at what's going on and then document everything that we see,” Rodriguez added.

It was 6 a.m. and below freezing as inspectors began reading this fire's tale. The “book” started with flames shooting from the attic on the building's southeast side. A bright orange flare scribbled out clues of origin, billowing smoke illustrated direction of travel, but the fire managed to keeping one thing off the record; its cause.

"Frustrating? Sometimes. Challenging? Very, very challenging, because every structure fire is different and every structure fire is a puzzle that we have to put together and see if we can complete,” Rodriguez commented.

And so inspectors will continue to “read” the latest fire story at Park Jefferson; one that seems to have burnt-up its last and final page.

The South Bend Fire Marshall’s office plans to keep its four inspectors working at the Park Jefferson scene. However, with plenty of other fires across the city, their time is limited. Meaning if nothing else surfaces, they'll likely have to close this case with the label "undetermined.”

So far investigators have established that the blaze started within an attic on the building's southeast side. Since access to that attic is blocked, inspectors say faulty wiring is the likely culprit. But again, due to widespread damage, that theory has been impossible to prove.