DENVER — A massive fire at a construction site for a Denver apartment complex forced evacuations for nearby residents on Friday evening and injured one firefighter, officials said.
Robert Murphy, operations division chief for Denver Fire Department, explained that more than 100 firefighters from various agencies in the Denver metro area responded to the blaze, which broke out around 6:45 p.m. Friday near S. Leetsdale Drive and S. Forest Street.
“This fire ran freely from one end of this building to the (other)," he said. "It’s a complete city block and it is on fire.”
Denver7's news helicopter flew over the scene on Friday night. Below is a sped-up timelapse of what we saw.
He said firefighters arrived at the scene to find the west end of a three-story apartment complex, which was under construction, fully engulfed in flames. The fire continued to push its way eastward through the building as firefighters set up to control it.
“There was a little bit of wind when this fire first came in," Murphy said. "A fire of this size actually generates kind of its own mini wind and starts pushing those embers out. When I arrived, those embers completely covered my car. That has since died down. That was when the fire was at its peak.”
Initially, authorities said no injuries were reported but the Denver Fire Department later posted on social media that one firefighter had been hurt and was transported to Denver Health. There were no other reported injuries, but Murphy said firefighters have not been able to safely enter the building and confirm nobody was inside. A chainlink fence was around the building to keep anybody outside of construction crews from going onto the site, Murphy said.
The Denver Police Department issued evacuations for residents behind the apartments due to the heat from the fire. As of 9:30 p.m., that is still in place, but Murphy said the fire department is no longer worried about the fire moving outside the burned structure. He said residents should be able to return home Friday evening.
There was "a lot of exposure" to neighboring buildings at the fire's peak, he said.
“The damage is massive," he said of the construction site. "I am not a building engineer, but there is a lot of fire and it is running completely through that building. As you can see, we have water pouring in from every angle that we can, trying to knock that fire down. There is a lot of damage.”
He said the apartment complex did not have any drywall to slow the fire's progress, and was not yet outfitted with a sprinkler system.
Witnesses captured the below videos of Friday evening's fire.
The fire was the biggest he has seen in Denver in a long time, he said.
“This has really reached the level of about a five-alarm fire, which is huge for Denver," he explained.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation. Fire investigators are at the scene.
Leetsdale Drive is closed in both directions, according to the Denver Police Department. Murphy said the road closures will likely stay in place through the night because deep-seeded fires are still burning in the apartment units.
As of 9:30 p.m., he said about 70% of the fire has been knocked down.
Denver7's Claire Lavezzorio went to the scene and spoke with families in the neighborhood, who said power was turned off and firefighters knocked on their doors telling them to evacuate.
Resident Sean Horan said he walked out of his neighbors' house to see a small orange glow. Just a few minutes later, he said he saw flames that he estimated were 150 feet tall when compared to trees near the burning structure.
“Now we’re not sure if we can even get back to our houses," added neighbor Michael Weiss. "The whole street is barricaded off... It’s really, really scary.”
Horan said a large apartment complex was under construction in the area, and he suspected that was what had caught fire.
He said it did not look like it had spread to any trees in the area.
“Waiting out here, looking at this, is pretty depressing," Weiss said, glancing at the blaze.
An emergency shelter is open at the Cook Park Recreation Center, located at 7100 E. Cherry Creek South Drive, for residents who were evacuated or are without power.
