Three weeks after a fire damaged three downtown buildings, help continues to come in from the public while investigators try to determine how it started.

The money raised so far, including nearly $7,000 from a silent art auction, will go to the roughly dozen residents and the businesses impacted by the July 16 fire.

Investigators haven’t been able to determine what caused last week’s fire because of extensive damage done to the building at 235 Water St., where the fire started.

A building destroyed by fire Thursday is deemed safe for passers-by as business returns to the street below.

The former Yorktowne Mill and a building on Water Street were destroyed in separate blazes; the great fire occurred in 1860.

Sgt. Kenneth Grimes of the Office of the State Fire Marshal said he was “as confident as I can be for examining the entire building” that no one had died in the fire after a search did not turn up human remains.

An apartment tenant was taken to the hospital for smoke inhalation and three firefighters were injured as businesses around 235 Water St. were ordered to evacuate after the fire spread to other buildings Thursday afternoon.