North Table Mountain, one of the Denver metro area’s geologic icons, was partly blackened Friday in a raging brush fire that scorched more than 207 acres of open space and threatened homes.
Although the cause of the fire is under investigation, two boys and a girl who were found in the area were taken in for questioning.
Neighbors say the teens were seen shooting fireworks.
Authorities took a backpack containing fireworks from the teens. The teens were sent home to their parents, said Jefferson County sheriff’s spokeswoman Jacki Tallman.
“There’s more investigation to be done, but it looks pretty clear,” Tallman said. The three teens will be high school sophomores in the upcoming school year.
About 10 p.m. Friday, the fire was 100 percent contained.
The blaze came within feet of homes as firefighters and residents with water hoses mounted a staunch defense.
About 114 firefighters from at least 10 departments fought the flames.
Sheriff’s spokesman Jim Shires said all but one of the departments that responded were volunteer departments, and the blaze got away from them before others could arrive.
“That’s not to minimize what they did in saving homes,” Shires said.
Three aircraft – a spotter plane and two small tankers – also helped. The county’s incident management team was being called in to take control of the fire, Shires said.
At least six homes on the north side of North Table Mountain were evacuated when flames crept within a few hundred yards.
Residents of Table Rock, a new subdivision on the west side, were alerted and told to watch the progress of the fire. The flames came up to the backyards of $500,000 homes that are still under construction.
“There are little canyons and hills on the mountain that winds go into and kick it up,” Shires said. “The biggest concern is the wind.”
The first call came in about 12:30 p.m. to the Fairmount Fire Protection District, when the blaze was only at 1 1/2 acres.
Homeowners watered their yards. A number of residents in the area have horses and hauled them out in trailers.
Dean Nelson moved his three horses to a neighbor’s property because, “I just figured that we ought to move them before they get real crazy.”
Taking them in was Laura Sankey, who said, “We just wanted to give them a little bit of a buffer from the fire.”
The Jefferson County Fairgrounds was opened for horse owners who wanted to take their animals there.
Two 13-year-old boys who live down the hill from the blaze said they were coming back from Water World when they saw smoke.
“I thought it was construction dust. I didn’t know it was in my neighborhood,” Reed Kinney said.
Staff writer Ann Schrader can be reached at 303-278-3217 or aschrader@denverpost.com.
