Raleigh Convention Center fire causes over $2M in damages. What we know
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- Fire caused over $2M damage; crews contained rooftop natural gas blaze fast.
- 61 firefighters responded; 17 occupants evacuated with no reported injuries.
- City assesses reopening as scheduled events loom and expansion plans continue.
A fire Monday night at the Raleigh Convention Center may have caused damages exceeding $2 million, but officials said Tuesday they aren’t clear on the breadth of the problem.
Officials described the fire, reported at 9:29 p.m., as a “natural gas incident” that started on the convention center’s roof, Raleigh public information officer Julia Milstead told The News & Observer on Monday.
Raleigh Fire Chief Herbert Griffin said Tuesday the damages totaled more than $2 million, but Kerry Painter, the executive director of the convention center, later said she didn’t have a total estimate.
About 30,000 to 50,000 square feet in the back of the building were affected, Milstead said Tuesday. Officials are still working to finalize that number.
It took 25 minutes to get the fire under control, Griffin said Tuesday at a media briefing on the incident. A total of 61 firefighters responded.
“This could have easily been a catastrophic event with a building of 500,000 square feet,” he said. “So the men and women of the Raleigh Fire Department, the Raleigh Police Department, Wake County EMS, they did an excellent job getting that fire contained and extinguished without minimal damage to the interior.”
No injuries were reported. Milstead said 17 people were inside the building at the time, and they exited the center safely.
The exact cause of the fire is still being determined, but it happened near an HVAC platform. A gas line fed into that system and was eventually cut, Griffin said.
In a brief press conference Tuesday afternoon, Painter said Tuesday had been “a big day of assessing.”
“There is a fair amount of water damage,” she said.
That damage was caused by a mixture of the sprinklers in the building being activated, a hole in the roof letting Monday night’s rain in and firefighting efforts, according to Painter.
“It’s not been 24 hours, so we’re trying to see as much as we can know, and it’s complex,” she said.
Sprinklers inside the building were activated, causing some water damage in the kitchen to perishable goods, said Mayor Janet Cowell during an update at the Raleigh City Council meeting Tuesday.
Convention center employees have spoken with event planners for events scheduled over the next week to two weeks to discuss alternative venues, Painter said. She didn’t have an estimate as to how many events would be affected; center staff removed an online calendar of events because people were calling event coordinators, according to Painter.
The Raleigh Convention Center is between South McDowell and South Salisbury streets. It’s a hub for major professional gatherings and events, including GalaxyCon Raleigh, the Downtown Raleigh Home Show and business meetings.
No events were being held at the convention center Monday night, Milstead said.
‘Smoke coming off the roof’
Flames briefly shot well above the roof, as seen in multiple videos captured of the downtown blaze, spurred on by the gas, Griffin said.
But just past 10 p.m., only smoke could be seeing rising above the building.
“We just saw smoke coming off the roof,” said Cate Kimball, working at nearby Poole’s Diner. “It didn’t go any lower than that.”
The air smelled like burnt plastic for several blocks.
A ladder truck extended above the roofline as patrons from nearby bars and restaurants collected on the sidewalk.
Smoke above the Shimmer Wall
The convention center, finished in 2008, contains 500,000 square feet of space over three levels. It cost more than $200 million to build, among Raleigh’s most expensive projects at the time.
The building is notable for the Shimmer Wall facing Red Hat Amphitheater on South McDowell Street. The massive mural of a tree by Thomas Sayre changes colors thanks to lights shined on it from across the street.
The wall remained illuminated Monday night as the fire burned, with some people initially mistaking its bright red and yellow lights for flames.
“It looks like that structural integrity is good,” Cowell said, adding she’s been in contact with Sayre after the fire. “I know that’s a beloved feature of that building, but it looks like that one is okay.”
Several events had been scheduled in the coming days, including the North Carolina Cybersecurity Summit on Wednesday and Thursday, a holiday party on Friday and two cheerleading competitions Saturday and Sunday. The Association Executives of North Carolina had a three-day trade show scheduled the following weekend.
The Cybersecurity Summit preemptively chose to find alternative venues, Cowell said.
Meanwhile, the city has embarked on a major expansion to attract more events with additional event space and meeting rooms. The $387.5 million project includes relocating Red Hat Amphitheater. Construction on the expansion is set for mid-2027, after the amphitheater work.
This story was originally published December 1, 2025 at 10:14 PM.
