Officials Sift Rubble for Records : Fire: Investigators say the $4-million blaze that destroyed the Simi school district warehouse Nov. 28 started accidentally.

Officials began sifting through the charred rubble of Simi Valley Unified School District’s main warehouse Friday to salvage whatever supplies and records may remain from last month’s $4-million fire.

The salvage attempt came as fire investigators ruled out arson as a cause of the fire and said it had been started accidentally.

Although the specific cause of the fire is unknown, Ventura County Fire Investigator David Chovanec said the Nov. 28 blaze is believed to have been touched off by a malfunctioning fluorescent light fixture or heating equipment at the southwest end of the building.

A detailed report on the investigation will be delivered to district officials in about two weeks, he said.

Until late Friday afternoon, school officials had not been allowed to enter the building in the 800 block of Cochran Street to take inventory of salvageable supplies and records. They have been fearing that student records dating back to 1890, when the district was formed, were destroyed in the fire.

Associate Supt. Cathi Vogel said Friday that school officials believe some records contained in a vault may have been saved but that it is uncertain how extensive those records are.

“The vault is in there, but we haven’t pulled it out and opened it up,” she said. “We won’t know until next week about the contents.”

School officials said records after 1972 are contained on computer files in the district’s administrative building. Student records from 1985 to the present are kept at the individual schools.

Vogel said the district’s 26 schools have been ordering supplies through the Conejo Valley Unified School District warehouse since the fire. The district has also been using storage facilities provided free by Simi Valley businessman Don Otto.

However, Vogel said the district signed a lease agreement Friday with another warehouse operator near the district’s headquarters on Cochran Street. She said it will take a few weeks to install shelving but that the facility should be fully operational by January, when students return from Christmas vacation.

Vogel said it will also be a few weeks before engineers and insurance investigators determine whether any part of the gutted warehouse can be saved or if a new structure will have to be built. All that remains of the building is four walls and the foundation. The roof collapsed in the fire.

The warehouse fire was the third one in a district building this year. A fire in April at Park View Center School, a training facility for teachers and administrators, caused $250,000 in damage. The fire was blamed on faulty wiring.

Arson at Madera Elementary School in August caused $100,000 in damage. Classrooms that were destroyed in the two fires are still being rebuilt.