WHITE CASTLE - Officials in Iberville Parish are calling the main building of Nottoway Plantation a total loss, that is after a major fire started Thursday afternoon.

A historic landmark, reduced to rubble. Fire crews, still fighting hotspots in the structure of Nottoway plantation more than 24 hours after a fire destroyed it. 

"There were layers of wood on top of each other so they couldn't access the attic in the main structure and once it was there it was hard to stop," Parish President Chris Daigle said.

10 different fire departments responded to the fire, after the first couple of hours it seemed it was contained until high winds caused it to re-spark. 

"An old facility like this, that old cypress material, that's what the installation is built out of and once it gets going it's hard to stop," Daigle said.  

The Nottoway Plantation was built in 1859 and its the largest antebellum plantation in the south, its had few renovations since then but did not have a sprinkler system.

"To lose something of such historical value, and preservation of Nottoway and what it represented. There's so many mixed emotions as well right, of the history of what a plantation was, in the 1800s, when this building was built in 1859 it's a day we were always afraid of," Daigle said.  

Daigle said this is also a big loss to the parish.

"When I was in the front office they were canceling an event for tonight, that was a tourist group coming in from New Orleans that's from out of the country, so we were feeling that impact across Louisiana but most importantly Iberville,’ Daigle said.