NATCHEZ — State fire officials have ruled the cause of the May fire at historic Dunleith was accidental in nature.

The fire that destroyed the nearly 150-year-old building used for offices and a gift shop might have had an electrical start, Deputy State Fire Marshal Scott Barnes said Wednesday.

“We have no reason to believe anything was suspicious,” Barnes said. “We can’t say which (electrical components) might be the exact cause of the fire, but we have enough information to rule it an accidental fire.”

The state fire marshal’s office now considers the case closed, Barnes said.

Dunleith General Manager John Holyoak said Wednesday the staff never had any suspicion that the fire was anything but accidental.

That assumption was “based on where the fire started, and considering all the doors were secured when the firemen got there,” Holyoak said. “We’re just glad nobody got hurt and we have the ability to preserve some of the building.”

Repairs can’t happen soon enough, he said.

“It’s more than just a historic building — it was the hub of our business,” he said. “Ten of our offices and our gift shop worked out of this building.”

Repairs to the building are in full swing, he said. The scorched bricks will be cleaned and used again to rebuild the structure.

“We’re going to put the original brick back up again,” Holyoak said. “It’s a more costly process to preserve the building, but we will do anything in our power to preserve it as much as possible.”

In addition, old flooring support beams will be used to reconstruct the outbuilding.

“We’ll make the building a showpiece,” he said.

But not everything will be cleaned of the smoke and scarring the flames left, he said.

“We will leave some of the floor joist exposed and some of the burned bricks upstairs,” Holyoak said. “It’s part of the building’s history, now.”