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Early morning fire destroys most of Glenwood home

Pete Fowler
Post Independent Staff
Glenwood Springs, CO Colorado

Around 2:30 a.m. Tuesday, a fire started by an unknown cause began destroying most of a house at 2119 Blake Avenue.

Neighbors heard screaming, and a couple next door said they were awakened to a “whoosh” sound and police knocking at their door telling them to get out.

Everyone in the house was able to get out and no one was seriously injured. One cat died and a brother and a sister living in a unit there wondered if their turtle ” Michealangelo ” was still alive.



Elena Loya thought the turtle might be okay since they lived on the north side of the house that didn’t burn as badly and the turtle was in a water-filled tank. Her brother Mark speculated that Michealangelo might have become “turtle soup ” one Ninja turtle dead.”

The fire started on the south side of the house where there used to be a deck with storage below it. There was speculation about whether or not a propane grill on the deck or gasoline for lawnmowers below the deck caused the fire. But Glenwood Springs Fire Department Chief Mike Piper said the damage was extensive enough that it would be very difficult to determine the cause. The propane and gasoline contributed to the blaze, he said.



The propane “really created a firestorm on that deck,” he said.

But it’s like the chicken or the egg as far as determining if the propane or gasoline caused it or just made it worse, he added.

Flames spread into the attic and burned through part of the roof, Piper said. At one point, a firefighter sprayed down on the roof from an aerial ladder extended horizontally above.

From the outside, the basement and south side of the house appears to be totally blackened and destroyed, but the north side looks as if it might not have even burned. Flames blackened elm tree trunks and limbs up to at least five or ten feet above the roof. The deck is gone, with a charred support beam indicating where it once was.

The Fire Department said it was dispatched to the fire at 2:38 a.m. and responded within 7 minutes with 9 personnel. Two more reserve firefighters and a volunteer arrived to assist. The department declared the blaze under control at 4:16 a.m. and cleared the scene just after 8 a.m. after assuring it had been completely extinguished. The Carbondale and Rural Fire Protection District also responded to the scene with 8 personnel.

“That’s the good news ” no human life was lost or injured,” Piper said.

Contact Pete Fowler: 945-8515, ext. 16611

pfowler@postindependent.com

See tomorrow’s Post Independent for more details and reaction to the fire.

Post Independent, Glenwood Springs Colorado CO


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