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A fire that destroyed an apartment unit in a complex Friday on East Eighth Avenue was likely an accidental blaze started by a candle, according to Durango Fire Protection District Marshal Stephen Rinaldi.
The report has not been finished, Rinaldi said Monday, but preliminary results indicate the fire was caused by an “inappropriate use of an open-flame device.”
First responders arrived after 1 p.m. Friday to reports of an active fire in a unit at the 8th Avenue Apartments, located at 350 East Eighth Ave. Photos provided by an eye witness showed flames leaping through the window of the unit with firefighters on scene.
Firefighters put the blaze out quickly, Fire Chief Randy Black said Friday, however the unit was “ruined.” The response shut down a two-block section of Eighth Avenue for two hours.
Rinaldi said it appears that a candle was left sitting on a piece of soft furniture, such as a couch or a chair with a cushion.
“It was in a location where it was surrounded with quite a bit of combustible material and sitting on a piece of furniture,” he said.
The blaze is likely to be classified as an accidental fire.
Damage was contained mostly to the single unit in which the fire started and the overhanging portion of the roof in front of it, and did not impact the units on either side.
The risk of a fire spreading in densely packed complexes is cause for concern among fire officials.
“This is a high-risk location for us,” Black said Friday. “… There’s basement units, there’s a lot of people packed into these units. This has always been a high area of concern for us. So when we hear that there’s a working fire in this place, we’re pretty nervous.”
Rinaldi did not know the condition of the unit’s occupant, who was taken by ambulance for smoke inhalation.
rschafir@durangoherald.com
