Preliminary work for the Thousand Islands Area Habitat for Humanity’s project at 1130 Superior St. will not be completed as quickly as was hoped, as board members await decisions from the agency’s insurance company regarding a Sept. 26 fire on site.

Brian R. Drappo, Building Committee chairman, said the agency should have enough insurance coverage to make up for the $15,000 loss of two storage trailers, tools and lumber that were lost in the fire.

“It’s not going to delay the build, but it’ll distract us from the build,” he said. “Time we would have spent on policies on the build will be spent replacing tools.”

White’s Lumber has offered to help, Mr. Drappo said, but the agency first will look at what’s lost, what really needs to be replaced and what can be recovered through donations.

“I’m looking to go back and look at our inventory and do better documentation for instances like this,” he said.

Some items lost in the fire include a generator, hammers, drills, skill saws, a 28-foot trailer and a 20-foot trailer and 125 T-shirts for volunteers the agency had recently ordered.

The Watertown Fire Department said the blaze was set intentionally, possibly to cover up a burglary.

“I just talked to the police yesterday and there’s no new leads on who is involved,” Mr. Drappo said Wednesday.

Both city fire and police investigators are investigating, since it appeared unlikely that flames from one of the trailers could have spread to the other. Two separate points of ignition are suspected.

Each trailer had two doors secured by padlocks, and one door on each was forced open before the arrival of fire units, Fire Chief Dale C. Herman said last week.

Anyone with information is asked to call city police at 782-2233.

Mr. Drappo said people who would like to help the agency can contact it through its website, www.tiahabitat.org.

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