Fire broke out Tuesday afternoon outside a vacant nightclub on Hampshire Drive which is owned by the South Carolina Department of Transportation.

Investigations were still ongoing Tuesday afternoon and the cause of the fire had not been announced, but firefighters said fire damage was minimal.

“It’s very possible it was an accidental fire, smoking materials or something like that,” said Gaffney Fire Chief Nathan Ellis. He said there was evidence at the scene that vagrants have been getting inside the building.

According to Scott Coleman, safety and training officer for the Gaffney Fire Department, passersby in a vehicle spotted flames coming from the rear of the structure, which once housed a nightclub called “Peaches.” The driver called 9-1-1 while a passenger walked over to the building to knock on the doors and see if anyone was inside, Coleman said.

“He thought he heard noises inside the building,” Coleman said.

Coleman said one fire crew knocked down the flames, which were contained to the exterior of the building, while another crew forced entry to check for any occupants.

No one was found inside the building, Coleman confirmed.

The flames were quickly extinguished.

Firefighters said the vacant building was acquired by the South Carolina Department of Transportation, possibly for a road project around the 95 Mile Marker of Interstate 85, and that the DOT began cleaning up brush and weeds at the site just within the past few weeks.

Ellis added that the DOT apparently is having an environmental inspection performed as a prelude to knocking the building down. But even if the DOT wasn’t in the process of doing that, Ellis said he would urge the structure be demolished.

“The roof is already falling in in several places,” he said. “It will never be safe for anyone to occupy that building again.”