Still no definite cause of a fire that destroyed the studios and offices of Ad Astra Broadcasting in downtown Hutchinson Friday morning. Hutchinson Fire Chief Kim Forbes stopped short of calling it arson, but did rule it as suspicious.

Fire investigator L-D Peevyhouse says they’re working on time line on when the first station out of the four went off the air, and when the last was knocked off. They’re also looking at a dumpster that was on fire behind the building and also the fact that some jail like doors in the rear of the building that block the back door was open and the actual back door burned away,
Peevyhouse says they’re trying to determine if the dumpster fire was started before the fire in the building or as a result of the fire.

The stations knocked off the air include KSKU, KXKU, KNZS and KWHK.

Chief Forbes stopped short of calling it arson, but say at this point, it is suspicious.

As for the station, they are working on a time line for when they might be back on the air, with staff members saying they think it could be a couple of weeks to a month with a temporary studio, and they plan to build a new studio at the same location.

Most of the debris from the building had been removed, and even late in the afternoon, they were still finding some hot spots among the remaining debris.

Main Street was still closed through the day Friday because of the work being done to remove nearly everything from what was left of the building which was partly torn down by crews because of fear the structure was not safe for investigators to get inside.

The fire was reported around 2:20 a-m according to Forbes.