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Forest Lakes fire does moderate damage

Family given vouchers to stay in local motel

A house fire Monday night caused moderate damage to a home in Forest Lakes.

“It was between the tongue-and-groove vaulted ceiling and the Pro-Panel roof,” said Chief Bruce Evans of Upper Pine Fire Protection District, about the call that came in about 8:30 p.m. “We were there until about 1 a.m. ripping through and chasing it through the insulation.”

Evans said the family lighted a fire in the stove at about 5 p.m. and heard a “crackling” noise in the ceiling at about 8 p.m.

“When they went outside and looked, they saw flames coming from near the vents,” he said. “Luckily, (Deputy) Chief (Randy) Larson just lives a couple of blocks away, so someone was there pretty fast.”

Durango and Los Pinos fire protection districts also responded.

Evans said as temperatures dropped, areas on the roof began to freeze and become slick where they had sprayed water, so they had to call firefighters down from outside.

“This is a very intensive kind of fire fighting for the guys,” he said, “They were standing on ladders ripping out the ceiling.”

He said the damage was moderate, with about a 16-square-foot section of Pro-Panel peeled off and several roof trusses removed. The Red Cross of Southwest Colorado responded, giving the family, whose identity Evans didn’t have available at the time of the interview, vouchers to a motel in Durango.

“We’re kind of perplexed as to the cause,” he said. “We originally thought it was from the stove, but there was no ignition point there. It looks like it started at the peak of the roof, but there’s no ignition source there. We’ve called in a fire investigator.”

abutler@durangoherald.com



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