Steamboat Springs Home Destroyed By Fire
STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, Colo. (CBS4) - A barbecue grill left running is thought to be the cause of a deck fire which eventually consumed an entire home Friday afternoon.
Firefighters received the call for a house fire in the 27800 block of Whitecotton Lane at 1 p.m.
They arrived to find flames moving from the fully engulfed rear deck into the living room and toward the front of the house.
"We were defensive from the start," said Chuck Ceiasoli, deputy chief for Steamboat Springs Fire Rescue.
Firefighters defer to defensive strategies when there is little prospect for saving a structure, no one is known to be inside it, and firefighters are subject to too much risk by entering it.
"It's in a rural part of the county," Ceiasoli said, "so we were making sure the fire wasn't getting into any brush. The neighbors were concerned."
As they should have been. Ceiasoli noted the limited water supply available to firefighters. A quintet of trucks -- including two sent into action by private contractors -- shuttled loads of water to the scene.
"The house is probably a total loss," Ceiasoli said, "but we were able to save some belongings."
The homeowners are in the process of moving out, he said, and were not at the home at the time of the fire.
As noted by the Steamboat Pilot/Today, the home is listed at nytimes.com.
No injuries were reported.
The grille is the suspected point of origin of the fire, according to Ceiasoli, but the department's investigation will attempt to formally determine the cause.
Firefighters will also return to the scene Saturday morning in case hot spots develop overnight.
