Everything was casual when Juliana Hand got on the elevator with some firefighters at The Lofts at Wazee Wire Works in Lower Downtown on Tuesday night.
They were checking for a gas leak on the roof, they told her.
Then a boom from above made the elevator shaft rumble and car shake.
“I thought, ‘Oh, my God, the world is falling down,’ ” she said.
On the second floor, the elevator stopped and she was ordered out.
On the roof, a flash fire from a gas-powered heating-and-air unit had thrown a firefighter at least 6 feet.
He was unidentified but is expected to be OK, said Denver Fire Department Lt. Phil Champagne.
“We were very lucky,” he said. “It does not appear he suffered any burns.”
The fire was quickly extinguished. Xcel Energy shut down the gas to the unit, and no leaks or fumes were detected inside, Champagne said.
As ladder trucks and dozens of firefighters dragged hoses under the flashing lights of their trucks, diners at the Wazee Supper Club at 15th and Wazee streets enjoyed their meal unfazed.
“It’s always something in LoDo,” said neighborhood resident Bradley Bain.
“At least no one was seriously injured. We’re not always that lucky.”
