A building damaged by fire in Maryville early Wednesday will be demolished.

The fire started from what officials call a careless smoker.  It left about 15 people without a home.

Firefighters spent much of Wednesday putting out hot spots in the building, Fire Chief Phil Rickabuagh said.

“We’ve been dealing with them for probably the last eight hours, just some really tough spots to get into.  We got that taken care of,” Rickabuagh said.  “The next step is the building owner is getting some bids from demolition contractors to take the building down.”

Main Street in front of Maryville will be closed until the building is demolished.  It housed nine apartments and two businesses.