A balloon sways close to the ruins of the recently burned Club Rio Rancho clubhouse Wednesday morning. Photo by Stephen Montoya.

Six days after fire destroyed Rio Rancho’s 49-year-old country clubhouse, investigators said the blaze was suspicious but they hadn’t yet reached conclusions.

The building was destroyed by fire the evening of Oct. 4.

To the north, spectators on the west side of the Rio Ranch High School stadium and those in the press box became aware of the conflagration just before halftime of the homecoming game, as flames gushed at least 50 feet in the air.

Rio Rancho Fire Rescue Department received a call from a motorist in the vicinity just before 8 p.m., said RRFR Lt. Jessica Duron-Martinez.

“Somebody passing by saw smoke,” she said. “(The caller) wasn’t sure if it was residential.”

It wasn’t, firefighters racing to the scene found out.

“Upon arrival, we saw the collapse of the roof and had to fight it from outside,” Duron-Martinez added. “We had two ladder trucks.”

Firefighters couldn’t enter the building because it had become too unsafe.

It took nearly six hours to bring the flames under control, and firefighters were still pouring water on the smoldering clubhouse at 10 a.m. Saturday.

The next day, former RRFR Chief Michael Meek said it was easily the largest fire in at least the last 25 years in the city – and maybe of all time.

Fire investigators were allowed to enter the building Saturday afternoon, said Mark J. Torres, special agent in charge for the Office of Superintendent of Insurance/Criminal Division in Albuquerque.

Torres said a multi-agency task force is working on the case: a Bernalillo County cadaver dog, another special agent from his office, Rio Rancho Police, Rio Rancho fire department and the state fire marshal’s office.

“Nothing was found; we brought in an accelerant dog,” he said, in light of no utilities being hooked up and no reports of any lightning that night. “Ignition points were identified: six separate alerts. It could also mean one single fire grew big enough that it was throwing off ash.”

Torres said the out-of-state lab work could take one to three weeks to indicate whether an accelerant was used to feed the fire.

“It’s suspicious,” he noted. “I have to do things based on the verbiage of the law. There are two types of arson: Negligent (accidental) arson and outright (intentional).”

As the investigation went on, he said, “We canvassed the neighborhood, requested videos from neighborhood video systems. We talked to two younger (kids), ages 12 and 13; they were innocent parties. We were still talking to people in Rio Rancho (Oct. 9) till 10 p.m. We opened the perimeter a little bit.”

As for the use of a multi-agency approach, he said, “Everybody brings us a specialty. It’s important we all work together; Rio Rancho PD knows the individuals (and it’s thus) easier to get the cooperation of the citizens.

“We are finding the citizens very cooperative, but nobody seems to be in the area at the time; nobody saw vehicles, a body or a person running,” Torres said. “We started talking to the neighborhood kids and the homeless frequenting the area.”