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House fire claims life of a man in midvalley

Scott Condon
Aspen Correspondent
Glenwood Springs, CO Colorado

A man was killed in a fire that engulfed part of a midvalley house late Monday afternoon, Carbondale Fire Chief Ron Leach said last night.

Few details were released about the incident. The cause was unknown and the incident is under investigation, with the Garfield County Sheriff’s Office as the lead agency, Leach said.

The man’s name and age weren’t released. Leach said he was unable to discuss the circumstances of the death until there is further investigation. He was uncertain if there were other occupants of the house at the time the fire broke out. No other injuries were reported.



The fire started at 17499 Old Highway 82 at about 5 p.m. The Carbondale Fire Department responded with assistance from the Basalt Fire Department.

“We extinguished the fire in pretty short order,” Leach said. “The fire was contained to the rear portion of the building.”



The structure was a single-family, one-level, wood-frame house, Leach said. The structure is located just west or downvalley from the Alpine Animal Hospital, on the opposite side or south side of Old Highway 82 from the animal hospital.

Messages to officials with the Garfield County Sheriff’s Office regarding the fatal fire weren’t returned last night.

The Basalt Fire Department responded to a second house fire in a different part of the midvalley a short time later. The homeowner at 36 Davidson Lane in Little Elk Creek subdivision came home to find extensive smoke and heat in a bedroom of the home. The Basalt Fire Department was called at about 6:40 p.m. The fire was reported out by 7:10 p.m.

“The fire had basically smoldered itself out,” Basalt Fire Chief Scott Thompson said.

The fire itself was contained to the bedroom, but the smoke and heat damaged the entire floor where the bedroom was located, Thompson said. He estimated the damage at between $50,000 and $75,000. No cause of the fire has been determined yet, he said. The investigation is ongoing.

scondon@aspentimes.com


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