The Monday night fire that damaged the Raleigh Convention Center caused an estimated $2 million in damages, according to Raleigh Fire Chief Herbert Griffin.
Early indications are a gas line leak from a heating and air conditioning unit may be to blame.
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Based on the type of building, the Raleigh Convention Center is required to get annual fire inspections. WRAL Investigates went through three different inspections from 2025.
The most recent inspection took place on May 7. At that time, nine items were marked as failures, including that the fire alarm system wasn’t inspected and maintained in accordance with the fire code. The same failing grade was given to the sprinkler system.
The city told WRAL News all of the inspection items were fixed. During an interview, Raleigh Mayor Janet Cowell said the sprinklers did go off when Monday night’s fire erupted.
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WRAL Investigates also found a request for proposal from the city, looking for a company to perform preventative maintenance and repairs as needed to the HVAC at the convention center. The request said preventative maintenance was required in April and October to coincide with the change of seasons.
While the bidding closed for that contract in June 2025, the request for proposal is still listed as pending on the state’s bidding website, so it is unclear if the city contracted anyone to do that maintenance. WRAL Investigates submitted a public records request for the current contract that the city has on file to perform those services. We are still waiting on that document.
A current fire inspector told WRAL Investigates that gas leak fires from HVAC units are rare.
From maintenance to inspections, Cowell said city leaders will be asking those same questions.
“I mean, those are definitely all the questions that we'll be asking on [the] city council,” Cowell said. “I was actually on council when we built the convention center, so I know well, that this is around [a] 20-plus-year-old building. So, [it's] not an incredibly aged system.”
