Three people died early this morning in a blaze that gutted a Springfield restaurant and an attached residence.
The fire broke out in the Home Town Burrito restaurant and adjacent house at about 2 a.m., said Chris Sorensen, spokesman for the Baca County Division of Emergency Management.
Sorensen said the owners of the restaurant lived in the home and have not been accounted for. He added, however, that the identities of the victims have not been confirmed.
He said investigators from the Colorado Bureau of Investigation and Baca County Coroner Robert Morrow entered the buildings at about 11:30 a.m. and found the first two bodies.
The third body was found about a half hour later.
The fire was contained at about 8 a.m., six hours after it broke out, said Sorensen.
The structures were in the heart of Springfield, a town of about 2,500 people in the southeast corner of the state.
Sorensen said it appeared to have been a very hot fire and burned the structures to the ground. He said the older, wooden structures were highly flammable.
An area one block north and south of the fire was temporarily evacuated.
Fire departments from Walsh, Pritchett, Campo, Two Buttes and Prowers Rural battled the blaze.
No firefighters were injured, but one truck was damaged.
Sorensen said a cause has not been determined.
Howard Pankratz: 303-954-1939 or hpankratz@denverpost.com
