A devastating six-alarm fire that displaced roughly 1,500 residents from a St. James Town highrise caused a loss of more than $6.5 million in property and contents, according to the official report from the Office of the Fire Marshal that was recently released to the public.

Danny Roth, spokesperson for Wellesley-Parliament Square (WPSQ), the property management for 650 Parliament St. and several other buildings in the area, disputed the figure in the report as not representative of the actual loss.

“We can’t speculate on the property loss value statement suggested in the Ontario Fire Marshal’s report, other than to suggest that it is a gross understatement of the actual construction costs incurred,” he said.

“The building’s reconstruction efforts will likely prove to be 10 times the OFM’s conservative estimate, resulting in costs in excess of $50 million.”

In the report, the fire investigator also noted they were unable to determine the specific area of origin of the fire due to the extent of the damage found throughout the building, with the most serious destruction examined from the sixth to the 15th floors.

The report concluded the fire was accidental in nature, the result of a “catastrophic failure of the electrical system” within 650 Parliament — which may have been caused by water entering the complex following a rain storm earlier that morning.

“Once the system went into overload failure, the circuits routed above to the overhead floors caused the plastic sheathing of the wires to melt,” the report said. “These exposed wires impacted upon the plywood wall sheeting of the electrical cabinets and other nearby combustibles causing them to off gas and ignite.”

Tenant Mark Slapinski, who runs a Twitter account representing displaced residents, said it was “pretty surprising to see the extent” of the damage.

“I didn’t think the damage was that bad based on what I saw,” he said, “but now seeing those pictures I have a different opinion.”

Slapinski also remarked that although tenants have been told they may be able to return to their respective apartments in November, he strongly doubts that will be the case given the significant delays in restoration.

Here’s the extent of the damage floor-by-floor, according to the report:

Basement: Evidence of fire damage on this floor appeared to be limited to the electrical room on the east side of the building — and was “visible to the outsides of the switchgear cabinets” and “evident on all the equipment within this room.”

The report noted “several banks of equipment had damage to the switchgear and/or had water pooled inside.” It added, “The switchgear for the main service feed from the transformers was severely damaged, with evidence of arcing, and one of the service legs after the main fuses was damaged and consumed.”

Floors 1-5: There was limited damage to these floors, with some charring to the wall cladding within cabinets on the fourth and fifth floors.

Floors 6-14: These floors were extensively affected, with damage to some of the walls, to the metal circuit channels, as well as the fire doors. “Fire patterns within these cabinets were a result of conductive and radiant heat transfer from the overheating electrical circuits routed through the west wall cavity,” the report noted.

Floor 15: According to the report, there was severe damage to the heating bus duct in which the aluminum melted and later solidified. Elevated cabinet and ceiling fixtures were charred, as were some fire doors.

Units 1512 and 1514 “had fire patterns to their interiors due to smoke migration from the electrical closet at the end of the hallway,” the report noted.

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Floors 16-22: These floors were among the least affect, the investigation concluded, although soot and charring was still present to elevated cabinets, fixtures at ceiling height, and plywood wall cladding.

“The fire patterns within these electrical closets on floors 16 through 22 was a result of smoke spread from below migrating through the confined wall cavities and conduit channels,” the report said.

The report comes as the building’s owners, Parwell Investments Inc. and 650 Parliament (LHB) Investments Limited, filed a motion in court late last month “seeking permissions to dispose of any unclaimed tenant contents, allowing us unfettered access to residential suites, a necessary condition to ensure the outstanding restoration efforts can proceed efficiently,” Roth said in a statement to the Star. It is set to be heard on Oct. 15.

“As part of our proposal, tenants will still be provided an opportunity to review and reclaim contents, however, based on low take-up rates to do the same in the last few weeks, we presume tenants will prefer to have their contents discarded,” he added, noting that the property management is also willing to “provide new furnishings, including living room and bedroom furniture, to every suite at re-occupancy.”

“Basically they’re saying ‘you have to come get your stuff on your own dime or else we’re gonna throw it out’ — that’s what we’re up against,” Slapinski said in response. “Fortunately I’m OK because I’ve already gotten my stuff out, but there’s a lot of residents that have their stuff in there that can’t afford to move it.”

A class-action lawsuit seeking compensation for the displaced residents of 650 Parliament is also ongoing. Included in the lawsuit is anyone who rented a unit or was a resident of the building on Aug. 21, 2018 — the day of the fire.