Fire At Thornton Apartment Complex Displaces More Than 20 Residents
THORNTON, Colo. (CBS4) - Several families and more than 20 people were displaced by fire.
The fiery blaze was turned into battlefield smoke along west 84th Avenue in Federal Heights, but not before it burned through the roof.
Multiple fire departments fought to keep the fire from spreading to other apartment buildings at The Lodge complex.
"I'm just scared, me and daddy's scared," a visibly shaken Doris Hollins-Dickey told her daughter on phone.
Hollins-Dickey and her husband Robert were among some 20 people chased from Building 27 at The Lodge apartments. The Red Cross helped to put them up at a nearby church.
"I just ran and got my clothes on. I'm just nervous because I don't have a place to live at no more. I don't know what to do," said Hollins-Dickey.
It's believed the fire began in an upstairs apartment or possibly the attic.
"There's a lot of void space and it allows the fire the opportunity to travel from unit to unit," explained Lt. Jeff Wofford with the Westminster Fire Department.
The blaze broke out at noon on Sunday.
Hollins-Dickey lives on the first floor and after using her fireplace she worried she might be blamed until a fireman told her the fire began upstairs.
"All of the upstairs apartments are so messed up, that's what made me so nervous," said Hollins-Dickey.
She escaped with just her purse, her husband and her dog. Another tenant fled with his pets as well.
"You saw the flames?" CBS4's Howard Nathan asked.
"Yeah, I did," she replied.
"Just glad i got out before they got me," said resident Jason Miller.
Hollins-Dickey is left to wonder what she and her husband will do now.
Investigators say the damage to the building is so bad it could be days before they are able to go inside to search for a cause.
Howard Nathan is a veteran newsman. Decades later, he still enjoys writing a clever sentence, asking the tough question and talking to people in Colorado. Follow him on Twitter @CBS4Howard and read his bio.