Photo: South Metro Fire Rescue
Eerie scene at fire at Waste Connections transfer station on South Jordan Street in Centennial, Colorado, on Sept. 19, 2023.
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"Denver’s first recorded fire took place March 18, 1860, when a livery stable in Auraria burnt to the ground with a loss of $18,000" - Rocky Mountain News, Feb. 18, 1951
Photo: Casper Fire and Rescue
On Jan. 21, 1955, firefighters battled a blaze at the Casper National Bank in Wyoming in the bitter cold. Firefighter Ed Schwerdtfeger is on the nozzle of a 2-1/2 inch diameter hose line. Below him it looks like there's a booster line snaking into the bank.
Colorado Bureau of Investigation Files
On Jan. 26, 1916, a basement fire billowed smoke through Denver's St. Joseph's Hospital, causing a commotion. Patients dressed and fled by fire escape in snow. Nurses rushed mothers and babies to safety. Fumes sickened nuns and firefighters, including Chief John Healy. Firefighter George Drake crashed through a skylight - and an expectant mother, Mrs. Leo Stack, gave birth thereafter. Newspapers identified the injured nuns as Sister Mary Edwards and Sister Mary Ligouri. [Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection]
Photo: Museum of Northwest Colorado
On Jan. 24, 1939, fire devoured the 100-room Cabin Hotel in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, killing two people trapped in the flames.
All that was left of the three-story frame resort was "a skeleton of charred wood and ice," the Associated Press said.
Mayor Claude Luckens and others tried to gain access but were driven out by smoke, the Steamboat Pilot newspaper reported.
The battle was lost before firefighters could get water on the blaze, which started near a chimney leading to a furnace room in the 30-year-old hotel's south wing. The volunteer fire department, under the command of Chief Lavern Nelson, was very small, with just 10 or so members.
Remains of Merle Sweet, 71, a Strawberry Park rancher, were found on the springs of his burnt bed, the Pilot newspaper.
The body of Mildred Keltner, 24, of Meade, Kansas, was located outside her room. She worked in Steamboat Springs.
The Pilot reported hotel manager C . P . Homer "rapped on doors and called to tenants to leave the building . Then he rang the buzzers in each occupied room . It was supposed that all had left the structure."
The hotel was owned by Routt County, having been seized for back taxes.
Photo: Boulder Fire-Rescue
Photo: NTSB Accident Report
On Feb. 20, 2021, United Airlines Flight 328 suffered an engine fire and fan blade separation that showered jet parts over the Front Range minutes after departing Denver International Airport.
The flight crew radioed a "Mayday" call, declared an emergency and returned the Boeing 777-222 to DIA where Denver Fire Department crash crews stood ready.
There were no injuries in the air or on the ground and the landing was smooth all things considered, however, debris punched a hole in the roof of a home in Broomfield.
Investigators determined a cockpit-controlled "spar valve" closed properly, preventing a more serious fuel-fed fire.
Flight 328 was bound for Honolulu, carrying 229 passengers.