Dacono police pulled an 86-old-woman out of a home late Monday night, but several dogs and cats died in a fire that gutted her mobile home, authorities say.
“I was very grateful to them for saving my mother,” said Jean Taylor, 62, of 1216 MacaDee Court. “They risked their lives.”
Dorothy Taylor was taken to the Northern Colorado Burn Center after two Dacono police officers broke down the front door of the double-wide mobile home just before 11 p.m. and rescued the woman, who was about 10 feet from the door, Jean Taylor said.
Dorothy Taylor was taken to the hospital in critical condition, said Jesse Hodgson, spokesman for the Mountain View Fire Protection District. Jean Taylor said her mother suffered second-degree burns to her shoulder.
“Her age makes it a little more risky,” Hodgson said.
Three dogs and numerous cats were killed in the fire that destroyed the mobile home, she said.
“We lost all of our babies,” Jean Taylor said. “We lost dogs and kittens. They were all taken good care of. I caught them and had them spayed and neutered so they wouldn’t have babies. They were our life basically.”
She declined to say how many pets she had in the mobile home, although the number exceeded the Dacono limit of four animals, she said.
Hodgson said five dogs and 10 cats were found dead. Another five cats were missing, he said.
“Every one of them had their own personality,” Jean Taylor said. “They were all well-loved. It hurts bad.”
The blaze started in the kitchen by some unknown means, and firefighters extinguished it within 20 minutes. Fire and smoke caused up to $50,000 in damage, Hodgson said.
Jean Taylor said her mother moved in with her in 2005. She was at work at Denver International Airport when she got a call about the fire.
Jean Taylor said she doesn’t know what caused the fire but said squirrels had recently chewed through some wiring in the home and that she hadn’t had time to repair the damage.
Kirk Mitchell: 303-954-1206 or kmitchell@denverpost.com
