Condo Fire Victim In Boulder Just Grateful To Be Alive
By Jeff Todd
BOULDER, Colo. (CBS4) - Two condos were destroyed by a fire and explosion Thursday morning.
"What really woke me was light. I'm in my bedroom and it's like 'Who turned the lights on?'" said Stephanie Price, who lived on the second floor of the complex at 1545 Patton Circle. "The light (was) the flames coming in the window."
The Boulder Fire-Rescue Department responded to a call at around 2:30 a.m. It took only a few minutes to put out the flames.
Price says when she first woke up the fire was on the front of the complex and was small. It soon ignited a propane tank and neighbors say the flames reached three stories high.
"When we first came out the fire wasn't that dramatic yet it was pretty big -- the front side was all covered but it wasn't that high yet, then (after) the last explosion the fire (went) up to the roof," said Ling McLaughlin, who recorded the flames and shared the video on YouTube. "We thought this whole building was going to be gone."
"It was right after I walked out that the explosion happened, and then the whole thing went up. It was something! I hadn't experienced anything like that," Price said.
Price showed us pictures of her condo which is a total loss. Appliances are melted and the ceiling material had fallen through to the floor. Her cat died in the fire.
"I'm alive," Price said. "You just have to be grateful for what didn't happen."
Jeff Todd joined the CBS4 team in 2011 covering the Western Slope in the Mountain Newsroom. Since 2015 he's been working across the Front Range in the Denver Headquarters. Follow him on Twitter @CBS4Jeff.