The cause of a fire that destroyed the garage of a Clinton home on Sunday was still undetermined, fire officials said Tuesday.

The district responded to a call of a fire at a former yard-sale/antique business across the street from Dairy Queen and the Chevron gas station. Firefighters arrived to find the stand-alone garage up in flames and a plume of grey smoke billowing into the sky.

South Whidbey Fire/EMS Deputy Chief Mike Cotton said knocking down the initial flames, which reached 10 to 15 feet in height at their peak, occurred in just a matter of minutes. It was the material inside the garage, which included recyclables, garbage, couches, wood products, and other assorted items, that kept emergency responders on scene for about three hours.

In total, 16 personnel, three engines, and two tenders responded to the scene.

Cotton estimated that the fire caused about $20,000 in damages to the structure.

“(The cause is) still undetermined,” Cotton said. “It did start in the middle of the building. We’re still trying to determine if it had electrical going to that building.”

The renter of the property was on North Whidbey at the time of the fire, he added.

“The renter has been trying to clean the property up,” Cotton said. “A lot of it was stuff left over by the previous property owner.”

Cotton didn’t want to speculate on what may have caused the fire.

“There was furniture stored in there, so there were a lot of wood products,” Cotton said. “We’re still looking at what it could be.”

“It’s all part of the investigation,” he added.