A massive blaze which tore through a warehouse storing more than $30 million of medical supplies and caused an emergency declaration across the Northern Territory's health system has been ruled as not suspicious.
Emergency crews were called to the Darwin suburb of Berrimah at midday on August 21 and spent several days extinguishing the fire.
In a statement released on Friday afternoon, Acting Deputy Chief Fire Officer Joshua Fischer said the fire was started by a "malfunction of an electrical item".
“There are no suspicious circumstances surrounding the fire with the determined cause being accidental," he said.
Authorities were only able to establish the cause after more than a week, due to structural instability of the warehouse. A large portion of the building's roof collapsed due to the fire.
The warehouse along College Road was storing medical supplies and it supplied the Royal Darwin, Palmerston, Katherine and Gove hospitals.
Its destruction prompted NT Health to declare a code brown, an emergency alert which is typically activated during transport accidents, chemical spills and natural disasters.
Authorities were initially concerned about combustible material inside the warehouse, including oxygen bottles, with fears the blaze could produce toxic smoke.
Building met safety regulations
On Thursday, a spokeswoman for NT Health told the ABC the medical equipment inside the warehouse was subject to public liability insurance.
"The building, including the fire system, was compliant with all relevant Northern Territory and National Construction Code requirements and was fully certified," she said.
"Fire equipment installed in the premises included installed fire hose reels, fire extinguishers and boosted hydrant ring main for Fire Service use."
The building had been leased by NT Health, but the department said it stored medical equipment at a number of other facilities across Darwin as well.
Mr Fischer said the fire could have caused further damage had it not been for the work of firefighters.
“I’d like to thank our [Joint Emergency Services Call Centre] staff who received numerous calls regarding the incident and our career firefighters who worked tirelessly to protect neighbouring assets so that the fire did not spread," he said.
