Denver crews battle fire at building under construction on Leetsdale Drive near Glendale; "The damage is massive"
Denver firefighters responded quickly to a giant fire that started on Friday night in a building that is under construction. Evacuations in the immediate area were ordered, and heavy smoke lit up by bright red flames could be seen from miles away.
Police shut down Leetsdale Drive in both directions at approximately 7:15 p.m. near Forest Street as the fire blazed. That's close to Denver's border with the city of Glendale, east of Colorado Boulevard. A sign outside of the construction sight indicated the name of the building was to be Harker Heights.
Denver Fire Department said on social media that "crews are operating in heavy fire conditions and focusing on containment and exposure protection." A fire department division chief said it "rose to the level of about a five-alarm fire" and that at least 100 firefighters responded to the scene. There was a concern that the fire would spread to other nearby homes or businesses but for the most part that was prevented.
Numerous firefighters could be seen spraying large amounts of water on the flames from ladder trucks at 7:45 p.m., and the intense effort continued for hours as the flames could be seen from above from CBS Colorado's news helicopter. Denver Water increased water pressure in the area so firefighters could get the most amount of water on the flames as possible.
"What you have in a building like this is you don't have drywall and insulation to keep fire contained to a certain room," said Robert Murphy, Division Chief of Operations of the Denver Fire Department. "We don't have all those fire protection systems in place -- sprinklers and other things. This fire ran freely from one end of this building to the next. It's a complete city block and it is on fire and it's unopposed because there's no fire stops."
"The damage is massive," he said.
So far the cause of the fire is unknown.
"Our fire investigators are here now. They will be diligent in their investigation. We don't have any reason to believe that it was or was not started by somebody," said Murphy.
Approximately 1,000 Xcel Energy customers in the area experienced power outages due to the firefight. Staff at Sam's No. 3 Glendale said the restaurant lost power due to the fire nearby at 8:15 p.m. and they had to close their business early.
Other fire departments including Aurora's assisted the Denver Fire Department with the firefight.
At 9:30 p.m. evacuations of nearby residents remained in place
There are no reports of any injuries to firefighters. As of 9:30 p.m., the flames have prevented crews from doing a search inside the building to see if anyone inside was hurt.
"As far as we know, there are no injuries," Murphy said.
