RUNS & WORKERS

On Nov. 16, 2018, a fire and explosion rocked the Heather Gardens adult community in Aurora, Colorado, killing a resident. A firefighter and another person were injured. “Our hearts go out to the many residents who are impacted by this tragedy,'' Aurora Fire Chief Fernando Gray Sr. said.

Photo: Denver International Airport

On Nov. 17, 2018, United Airlines Flight 1941 from Tucson, Arizona, went off a taxiway after landing at Denver International Airport. No injuries reported.

On July 11, 2018, fire swept a recycling plant near Commerce City, Colorado. Two firefighters were injured. Crews were on the scene at Evraz Recycling at 5601 York Street in unincorporated Adams County for about 10 hours.

On June 23, 2018, fire damaged the main building at Marys Lake Lodge in Estes Park. About 250 people - including a wedding party - were safely evacuated. 

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South Metro Fire Rescue dispatched its airport foam unit to smother a vehicle fire on I-25 near the Denver Tech Center on May 31, 2017.

PUEBLO FLOOD - 1921

Photos: Private Collections 

June 3, 1921

``As the torrential rains fell, the Arkansas River and Fountain Creek quickly began to swell, reaching over 15 feet in some areas before they began to recede. Within two hours from the start of the storm, the entire wholesale district and a greater part of the business district of Pueblo were flooded with water 10 feet deep.

``The entire Arkansas Valley, from 30 miles west of Pueblo to the Colorado–Kansas state line, was severely impacted. Hundreds of people died, with some death toll estimates as high as 1,500. The flood destroyed almost all of the downtown Pueblo area and decimated the city.

``Once the floodwaters receded, the immense damage became all the more visible. The flood, which covered over 300 square miles, carried away over 600 homes and caused upwards of $25 million in damage at the time. By today’s standards, that number would likely be $300 million or more. Railroad passenger coaches and freight cars were swept away in every direction or smashed into kindling.

``A fire even broke out in a lumberyard and burning lumber was carried throughout the city’s streets by the flood. The floodwaters also carried away entire buildings and businesses. Many of the dead were likely carried far down river and never recovered.''

National Centers for Environmental Information

CITY SHOPS - 1919

Denver police officer Emerson L. McKinnon died May 20, 1919, of injuries sustained at a fire six days earlier.

McKinnon fell into an elevator shaft as he helped Denver firefighters advance a hose line at the City Shops.

Open building shafts were common in that era, posing a constant risk to firefighters groping in smoke and providing a pathway for flames.

HARVEY HOTEL - 1953

Photo: gendisasters

Photo: Historic Helena

Fire belched smoke from the basement of the Harvey Hotel in Helena, Montana, on the afternoon of May 19 1953, prompting a daring rescue. 

Trapped in his room, hotel guest Mike H. McLaughlin "was brought to safety by firemen who went over the top of the Eddy bakery, across the alley on a roof" and into the hotel annex, the Independent Record newspaper reported. "McLaughlin was sticking his head out of his annex room window to get air."

The newspaper also said:

"Fire Chief Joe Munger and his men were attacking the unseen fire from both front and rear of the 83-room hotel. Munger and one crew were working forward in an underground tunnel under the one story cafe-annex which appeared to be the starting point of the fire. Other firemen were shooting water into the unoccupied cafe front.

"In the lobby of the hotel, smoke was emitting from every crack and crevice in the south wall. Light fixtures, the drinking fountain, doorways and floor edges were shrouded with thick smoke. ...
"Because of the huge volume of smoke and inability to penetrate it without masks, the firemen were fighting blind, throwing water into areas where the smoke appeared to be thickest."

Fire again struck the hotel on Feb. 26, 1967, damaging it beyond repair.

SKYWEST 5869

Photo: qz.com - Courtesy of Jeanette Jackus

On July 2, 2018, SkyWest Flight 5869 landed at Denver International Airport with an engine ablaze. Everyone was safely evacuated.

``The fire was large enough that the controllers in the airport control tower could see it and radioed the pilots to alert them,'' according to Kevin Delaney, editor of the website Quartz, who was aboard the flight.

The regional jet carried 59 passengers and a crew of four.

SkyWest operated the flight for United Air Lines.

416 FIRE CUB

Photo: Denver Channel

Firefighters rescued an injured bear cub from the 416 Fire in southwest Colorado in June 2o18. The cub, who was found wandering alone, suffered burns to her feet. The blaze,  one of the largest wildfires in Colorado history, started June 1, 2018 in the San Juan National Forest north of Durango and burned more than 50,000 acres through the end of July.

Embers from a from a Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad coal locomotive started the fire at Shalona Hill, investigators determined.
The Denver Post said: "The flames triggered thousands of evacuations, caused millions of dollars in damage to the local economy and shut down the San Juan National Forest for the first time in its 113-year history."

3RD ALARM - 2018

Photo: Denver Fire. Dept.

Photo: Denver Fire Dept.

On March 7, 2018, giant flames devoured a construction project near downtown Denver, forcing trapped workers to jump for their lives. The remains of two others - identified by The Denver Post as Roberto Flores Prieto, 29 and Dustin Peterson, 37 - were found in the rubble.  The three-alarm inferno at 1833 Emerson St. injured six others, damaged 13 buildings and destroyed about 30 vehicles, the Post reported.

``I went out on my porch and it felt like I was next to the sun,'' said Kristen Cohen, who lives nearby.

HELENA BANK - 1944

Photos: helenahistory.org

It was a hellish day in Helena when flames roared through the Montana National Bank building in the bitter cold of Jan. 9, 1944.

Two elderly women residing in a fourth-floor apartment died and their bodies were recovered from the rubble. But others got out. Eight people were injured, including two firefighters.

Residents fled on fire escapes as flames shot out windows. Firefighters brought down trapped people by ladder.

A resident of a fifth-floor apartment "grasped a cable and swung like Tarzan to the roof of the building next door," while a 14-year-old girl and her 4-year-old cousin jumped 25 feet to the top of a shed, according to historian Ellen Baumler, writing in the Independent Record newspaper of June 9, 2013.

"The crowd that gathered on Main Street collectively held its breath as Fire Chief Dick Coe and Captain Joe Munger raced back into the building to search for two elderly residents," Baumler wrote.

"An explosion in the center of the building threw bricks across Edwards Street and sent the upper floors crashing down," she wrote. "The crowd cheered when the firemen emerged unharmed."

FIRESTONE - 2017

On April 17, 2017, an abandoned oil and gas pipeline exploded in Firestone, Colorado - leveling a home and claiming two lives. 

The blast illustrated the dangers of living in proximity to drilling sites.

Investigators determined odorless gas from a severed oil and gas entered the basement through a French drain and sump pit.

Though abandoned, the 1-inch line hadn't been disconnected from its wellhead and capped, according to news reports.

"It was an unusual and tragic set of circumstances," said Frederick-Firestone Fire Protection District Chief Ted Poszywak, quoted by the Times-Call newspaper.

The 24-year-old line, which was cut before the development of the Oak Meadows subdivision, was 7 feet beneath the surface and 6 feet from the foundation.

The wellhead was about 170 feet from the home.

COMMERCE CITY - 1978

Photos: Denver Public Library

On Oct. 3, 1978, an explosion ripped through the Continental Oil Co. refinery in Commerce City, sending skyward a fireball visible for miles.

The blast, which registered 1.5 on the Richter scale at the U.S. Geological Survey in Golden, killed three people and injured 11 others.

"More than 40 businesses and homes reported damage, some several miles away," according to the Denver Public Library.

The blast was concentrated near a gasoline processing unit installed about two weeks earlier, the library said.

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Commerce City, Colo. (UPI) -- The night shift was in its final hours at the Continental Oil Co. refinery and Gary Thomas glanced at his watch, noting the time was 6:33 a.m. MDT.

Then the explosion came, louder than anything Thomas ever had heard.

Flames and black smoke billowed into the sky. Two workers at the plant were dead beneath the debris, a third was left dying and another nine were injured.

Thomas reacted with his only purpose to get away from the refinery.

"I started running," Thomas said. "There was one massive explosion."

Flames shot 60 feet above blackened refinery stacks. Gas fumes leaking from newly installed equipment had ignited in a ball of fire, shattering windows in the industrial suburb north of Denver and shaking homes many miles away.

Tuesday's explosion registered 3.5 on the Richter scale at the Regis College seismological observatory in Denver, and 1.5 at the U.S. Geological Survey in Golden.

Three Conoco employees -- STEVE FRENCH, 24, DAVID HOBBS, 32, and RON DeHERRERA -- died in the explosion, said Thomas, the plant personnel manager. Nine other men suffered injuries: six remained at Denver hospitals today in conditions varying from serious to satisfactory.

Hundreds of firefighters from throughout the Denver area, arriving before the 6:56 a.m. sunrise brought the fire under control in three hours.

Police received an anonymous telephone call that the explosion was caused by a bomb, but a search found no device and police discounted the report.

Plant manager Robert Alexander said the explosion occurred in a polymerization unit at the refinery that had been in operation only two weeks. He said the plant was 25 percent destroyed and estimated damage at up to $5 million.

Employees in the unit, which converts petroleum into gasoline, propane and butane, had reported mechanical trouble during the night and had called in a company fire engine as a precaution. Thirteen men were at the plant when the explosion occurred, Alexander said.

"There was a release of hydrocarbon vapor, a propane and butane mixture, in the unit and it ignited," said Alexander. "What ignited the vapor, I don't know."

SMOKEY BEAR - 1950

A bear cub sought refuge in a tree during a forest fire in the mountains of New Mexico in 1950 and the firefighters who found the cub and named him Smokey.

LARAMIE - 1948

On April 14, 1948, fire leveled a downtown block in Laramie, Wyoming, and at the height of the blaze the flames were visible for miles.

 
Here's how the Associated Press covered it:

A fast spreading fire crackled through an entire business block early today in the downtown section of Laramie, site of the University of Wyoming.

Fifteen of 30 structures were unofficially reported destroyed by flames.

Discovered about 2 o'clock (MST) this morning, the flames were reported under control but not out three hours after they were discovered in the four-story brick W. H. Holliday Building.

Fire departments sped to Laramie from Cheyenne, Rawlins and Fort Francis E. Warren, in Wyoming, and Fort Collins, Colo., to help overwhelmed Laramie firemen and volunteers battle the blaze.

Troops from Fort Warren, 50 miles east of here at Cheyenne, National Guard members and Wyoming University ROTC students were pressed into service to prevent looting.

There were no early reports of casualties. Fifteen or 20 families lived in hotels in the flaming area. The Red Cross arranged to house them in a university. 

CONTINENTAL 1713

Photo: photosourcewest

On Nov. 15, 1987, Continental Airlines Flight 1713 crashed as it departed Denver's Stapleton International Airport in a snowstorm, killing 28 people and injuring 54 others.

It was Stapleton's deadliest accident.

Airport fire stations No. 1 and No. 2 were alerted to the crash by the control tower at 2:16 p.m. and responded with five crash trucks and 12 firefighters,  according to the National Transportation Safety Board report on the accident.

A full first alarm for city stations was transmitted at 2:21 p.m., followed by a second alarm at 2:33 p.m. and a third alarm at 3 p.m, the NTSB said, with Aurora, Sable Altura, Glendale and Thornton providing mutual aid.

``The plane skidded out of control for about a quarter of a mile before sliding off the runway northeast of the main terminal'' and ''flipped onto its back and broke into three pieces,'' The New York Times reported. 

``The whole fuselage twisted like a chicken whose neck was wrung,'' said Richard Boulware, an airport official quoted by the Los Angeles Times.

Firefighters worked for 2 1/2 hours to free survivors from the wreckage of the DC-9 jetliner after extinguishing several fires.

"They were digging them out row by row," said Joe Cipri, a firefighter quoted by the Associated Press. "Some were screaming, but most people were real calm - just waiting their turns to get out." One victim yelled "Get me out of here" but was dead by the time firefighters reached him, Cipri said.

The NTSB said rescuers worked to reach 18-20 victims near the broken left wing and used wooden cribbing and a forklift  to support the intact right wing, which as full of fuel. Firefighter Rory Moore said it was "a horrible feeling - a helpless feeling" trying to reach so many people.

Investigators concluded icing and crew error contributed to the crash of Flight 1713, which was bound for Boise, Idaho. The pilot and co-pilot were among the dead and it wasn't clear if the aircraft left the ground. "If it got off, it was not far enough for it to be detected by radar," said Fred Farrar, a spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration. 

Survivor  Robert Linck told People Magazine:

``Everything was smooth until we lifted off, then the plane started shaking violently. There was an explosion, and a ball of fire shot up through the floor, sheer white heat, enveloping the two rows ahead of me. I said, ‘I think we’ve had it.’ I tried to stand up, get away from the flames. That’s how I got the [second-degree] burns on my hands. I heard three explosions, then the lights went out and people started screaming. First the right wing dropped, and then the left wing dropped. I think the pilot over-corrected to the left. The plane flipped.

``In that last blinding second before we hit, I only thought one thing: I couldn’t believe this was happening to me. We smacked the ground with an impact so severe—I’ve been hit hard playing football but never like that. In the minutes after, there was not a single sound. It was utterly silent and totally black. That, believe me, was frightening. I was lying flat on my chest and I couldn’t see a thing. I wondered if that fireball had set the plane on fire, if I’d be burned to death. Then somebody, a passenger or a ground crewman, came through and said not to panic, there was no fire.''

Another survivor  recalled the impact.

``The metal was starting to tear apart. I thought about a crash in Reno where some kid survived because he was thrown from the plane still in his seat,'' said Douglas Self , quoted by the Los Angeles Times. ``The next thing I remember, I was in the field. I was in my chair. There were two chairs intact. I was sort of on my side, and the man in the other chair was over my shoulder.

``When I went to move him, I realized he was too light - that all of him wasn't there anymore. He was pretty torn up. Dead,'' Self said. ``Then I took off running. But the fog and the snow were so bad, I couldn't see the lights to the runway. Then I heard a sound and saw a blond girl about 13 or 14 years old. I just tried to keep her calm. She kept asking: 'Where are we?' ''

Other major incidents:

On Nov. 1, 1955, a bomb blast tore through United Airlines Flight 629, bound for Portland  from Stapleton. The DC-6 aircraft crashed near Longmont,  killing all 44 aboard.

On July 11, 1961, United Airlines Flight 85 veered off a runway on landing and burst into flames. Seventeen of the 122 aboard died. The driver of a vehicle struck by the DC-8 also died.

On Oct. 31, 1969, a hijacker commandeered TWA Flight 85 from Los Angeles to San Francisco and the aircraft landed in Denver where all the passengers and three flight attendants were released. The flight continued onto Rome by way of New York, Bangor and Shannon, Ireland.

On Aug. 7, 1975, windshear caused Continental Airlines Flight 426, a Boeing 727 bound for Wichita, to crash after climbing to 100 feet. There were no deaths.

On Nov. 16, 1976, a Texas International DC-9 bound for Houston crashed on takeoff . Of the 81 passengers and 5 crew, 14 were injured. There were no fatalities.