The cause of the July 28 Rochester Bakery and Cafe fire at 28 Marion Road has been officially ruled as undetermined by the State Fire Marshall's Office.

Fire tore through and gutted the building the bakery was located in late Thursday night. Fire engines from Rochester, Mattapoisett, Marion and Acushnet responded to the blaze. Police on the scene said the fire began at 10:03 p.m. It was sufficiently subdued around 12:10 a.m. according to Rochester Fire Chief Scott Weigel.

According to the State Fire Marshall's office, the fire's official cause is undetermined due to the inability to narrow the possibilities down to one option. The fire was either caused by "improper disposal of smoking materials," such as cigarettes or matches or by the gas grill that was on the rear deck of the building. The fire began on the rear deck.

The building that housed the bakery was shared by Black Tie Cookies and an accountant's office. There were also two apartments above the bakery.

Neighbors said they heard two small explosions, similar to fireworks, before flames began shooting through the roof. Residents Rich Ouellette and Denise Schwartz, who lived above the bakery, said they heard two or three loud noises, each a few minutes apart.

"I heard two or three, I honestly can't remember how many," said Schwartz. "I looked out my bathroom window and saw that the flames were higher than the deck."

"I heard three loud, I don't know, a sound like someone dragging a couch up the stairs outside my door and on the third one I opened it and all I could see were flames," said Ouellette, "I went in, got dressed, opened the window and out the window I went. That's when I saw Denise was in her apartment talking to 911 and I started kicking her window to get her out. I managed to help grab her and her cat."

"I called 911 and they told me the neighbor had already called and that I needed to get out now," said Schwartz. "I told them I needed my cat. I have a five year old, one-eyed cat that I couldn't bear to part with. I managed to get the cat-carrier and lock it and passed the carrier up to Richard and the firemen."

Schwartz managed to get out fairly quickly along with Ouellette and neither were harmed.

I got out and I was in shock, I didn't know where to go or what to do. I heard sirens, noise," said Schwartz. "That's when there was a hand on my shoulder and it was the neighbor I had never met. She offered to let me come sit on her porch and said she'd make any phone calls I needed."

Ouellette lost everything in the fire and does not have renter's insurance. Right now, he and the other tenants of the building are trying to move on and rebuild what they lost.

"I think the building is entirely gone and will need to be rebuilt," said Brad Walker, a partner in the Rochester Bakery and Cafe that occupied most of the first floor. "I'd like to rebuild but we'll see how that all turns out with the insurance company."

"I would say I was probably the luckiest one," said Nicole Tracz-Raposo, owner of Black Tie Cookies, a gourmet cookie store that was located in the building's basement. "Nothing was burned. I had water damage but I was able to salvage my industrial mixer and everything."

Tracz-Raposo, who lives in Dartmouth, was able to get help filling her existing orders from Fay's Restaurant and Hawthorne Country Club, both in Dartmouth.

"I have a wedding of 290 this week," said Tracz-Raposo, who caters cookie arrangements for several kinds of events. "I feel so bad to not be able to help people with their gifts. I need a new space and to start filling orders as soon as possible."

Tracz-Raposo has been busy going from one leasing space to another trying to find herself a new location.

"The ones I feel really bad for are the tenants upstairs," said Tracz-Raposo. "That was their home."

"It was devastating," said Ouellette. "I thought about trying to bring stuff out, but what do you bring? I figured the fire would stay in the back on the deck, the fire department would put it out and then they'd let us back in."

"I'm having a lot of flashbacks," said Schwartz. "Some people have dropped off clothing. The Red Cross has helped me. I lost just about everything, I'm not too proud to accept help."

Schwartz lost virtually everything in the fire but was able to rescue a treasured heirloom.

"My family came to the United States in 1887 and when they did everything they had was in a sea-chest," said Schwartz. "I was going through the wreckage and found that it had survived. It had all of my family's silver and our Passover dishes and prayer books. People were calling it the 'miracle chest'."

For right now, Schwartz and Ouellette are living with relatives until their lives return to a some semblance of normal.

"I'm OK, I'm staying with my daughter," said Schwartz. "Everyday I get a little bit stronger."

Anyone interested in helping Rich Ouellette can email him at roik68@aol.com.