AURORA, Colo. — In a span of about 90 seconds Sunday afternoon, Denver7 cameras captured in real-time the urgency of firefighters’ response to an active brush fire.
While we were interviewing an Aurora firefighter about fire weather conditions, his station was called to a brush fire burning near a petroleum plant in eastern Aurora.
Denver7 reporter Claire Lavezzorio and photojournalist John Rose only had the chance to ask Brad Danek, the head of Aurora’s wildland team operations, to say and spell his name – common practice for journalists in the field – before the call came into Aurora Fire Station 15.
“You might want to film them really quick,” Danek first suggested as sirens blared in the background. He then realized he needed to get to the scene, too.
“We have to go on a fire,” Danek said.
“I can’t stay [mic’d up] on the fire lines,” he added before tearing off his microphone and getting into a fire engine.
Watch the moment unfold in real time in this raw video:
Our crew followed firefighters to the scene – a pair of brush fires that eventually forced the evacuation of the Anadarko Petroleum Corporation facility near Interstate 70 and Powhaton Road.
The fires burned about five acres apiece on the east and west sides of the plant.
Crews battled fast-moving flames on a windy afternoon. A red flag warning was in place along I-25 and the northern plains Sunday.
“[Fire] does spread much faster with higher winds,” Aurora Fire-Rescue spokesman Shannon Hardi told Denver7 at the scene. “And you need more personnel to combat a fire that spreads faster, particularly wildland fires like this.”
“The flames for this particular fire are going up to six feet high.”
On a windy day, embers from a fire can be carried long distances and spark “spot fires” in other places, Hardi said. Limited water supply presented another challenge.
Still, AFR had the fire largely put out within about an hour and 45 minutes. No structures were ultimately damaged and no one was hurt.
“That plant was our number one concern, and anyone that was in that plant working during the fire,” Hardi said.
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