Investigators say discarded smoking materials are the likely cause of a fire that destroyed a shopping center in Bedford County.

Bedford Fire Marshal John Jennings says photographs of the fire taken by a Lynchburg woman provided clues to the origin of the blaze.

The fire broke out last Saturday at the Jefferson Business Center in Forest. The building housed five businesses and a Virginia Farm Bureau office.

Jennings said Thursday the fire began in a pile of broken-down cardboard boxes next to a back porch.

He says more than three dozen cigarette butts were found near the back porch. But investigators may never determine the cause of the fire with certainty.