Fire in Arvada

Around two in the afternoon I had some errands to run and around the corner of 64th and Wadsworth I could see many flashing lights. Must have been a car accident, I thought. As I glanced further north I saw a long ladder with water shooting down at a building. Must be a fire, I thought. I managed to take a picture of
the ladder before the traffic light changed and I headed south on Wadsworth. To the post office and then to Costco took about one hour and forty-five minutes. On my return, as I reached the corner of 64th & Wadsworth, I could see a firetruck and some police cars. The fire had been going on for a long time. I drove into the shopping area on the East side of Wadsworth Blvd and tried to get a spot to see exactly where the fire had happened or was happening.

The strip mall has high banks leaving me in a low area where I could not see anything. Driving around I found an exit where I could see the building and was surprised at the damage. There weren't any cars behind me so I parked and took some pictures through the windshield. I was also facing the sun and that made it more difficult to get a good shot. My hope was that the pictures I did take would turn out. I planned to watch the evening news to find out more about the fire; what caused it or what happened?

Though I live near the area where the fire had raged, I had never paid attention to the two office buildings in that block. When I got home I looked them up on the Internet and both buildings came up as office buildings though it was the one furthest north that burned. The building was a drug rehab treatment center.

On Channel 9 News there was a report of two persons injured and one missing employee. A bystander said, "It was an old building (1974) and all wood." Someone else made a comment, "There was a lot of smoke. I have never seen so much smoke."  More investigation is needed though suspicion is that the furnace may have been the problem. The news reported that even at this late hour some fire fighters are still trying to put out hot spots.

Two of my Facebook friends happened to drive by the building and saw the intense flames and smoke. One person drove by at ten in the morning while the other person drove by at noon. I passed the area at two and again at three-fifteen. It seems to have been a fifteen hour or longer fire.

Before

After