The Mims homestead consisted of a main house and several small buildings, including a kitchen and smokehouse near this site, both essential to preserving and preparing food. The smokehouse was used both to smoke and store meat, and the kitchen and smokehouse may have been combined into a single building. Around 3:00pm, Red Stick Creek warriors set fire to either the smokehouse or the blacksmith shop on the south side of the fort, and the blaze quickly spread to other buildings and the fort's walls. The fire burned with such intensity that it melted cast iron cooking pots and glass.