Apartment Complex Fire In Vail Started From Unit's Fireplace

VAIL, Colo. (CBS4) - Investigators in the mountains say a big fire over the weekend was an accident, but also very preventable.

The fire broke out at the Matterhorn Inn in Vail and caused more than $1 million in damage.

Dozens of residents have to find a new place to live. A few of them came back Monday to find the whole complex boarded up. They were able to take a few things, and they'll have to move the rest before the whole structure is torn down.

"What we're doing is making sure the owners of the relatively unaffected units can retrieve their belongings," Vail Fire Marshal Mike Vaughn said.

Thirteen people were at the complex Saturday morning when the flames skyrocketed out of the roof. The middle units have been completely destroyed and the fire sent one woman to the hospital. She's been released.

Investigators say the fire started in one of the units.

"The screen in the fireplace was displaced and we could tell there had been a fire in the fireplace," Vaughn said. "So there were embers or a log that had come out of the fireplace and got on the floor."

It was is the largest fire in Vail in the past few years.

"This is certainly the most significant in the impact," Vaughn said.

The building has already been condemned and will likely be torn down after the snow melts next summer.

"These are mostly working folks that are in here, so obviously we're really concerned about their loss of property, clothes, place to live," Vaughn said.

The big concern for the residents' moving forward is the fact that housing is practically non-existent in Vail and the loss of that type of property will only make things worse.