Denver synagogue still working to reopen following five-alarm fire, but congregation remains hopeful

Hidden within the flames of last month's massive apartment complex fire in Denver on Leetsdale Drive was a small Jewish synagogue, Koholet.

"We're right butted up against the burned buildings," Charles Jacobs, the congregation's president, said.

"So, they ran their hoses here, and they stood right here at the end of the sidewalk, and they shot water over there," he added, describing firefighters at the scene of the five-alarm fire in early January.

More than a month after the fire that destroyed the Harker Heights building that was under construction, Kohelet is still without power.

"That box you're looking at is our electrical service. So it fried," Jacobs said. "That charred pole is where the electrical service was that fed our building."

The sight of the destruction in and around Kohelet's building is jarring.

"We were lucky for lots of reasons," he said.

While the inside is in disarray, the silver lining is that the building is still standing.

"Smells like smoke," Jacobs pointed out as he walked inside.

Busted-out windows, water damage, and the lingering smell of smoke are all present in the building that had to be gutted.

"In a synagogue, there are important things, like Torah scrolls. We have three of them, and there, one of them is a Holocaust survivor," Jacobs said. "Those things are irreplaceable, and they were fine."

Downstairs, a group of volunteers continues to sort through items in what typically serves as the sanctuary.

"As you can see, there's a million things in here," Jacobs said. That included boxes of religious books that are now unusable. Jacobs explained that, according to the Jewish faith, since they have the Hebrew name of God in them, they have to be taken to a nearby cemetery and buried. They cannot be thrown away or burned.

But, in the midst of it all, the congregation remains hopeful.

"We won't know for a while whether we're going to have an economic problem," Jacobs said. "Right this minute, we're fine."

Jacobs just took over as president of the congregation a week ago, which is a volunteer position. He'll be overseeing the cleanup and rebuilding of their place of worship and hopes they'll be able to open their doors in the next three to four months. In the meantime, nearby Temple Emanuel has allowed them to use a room in their building for services.