A smoke-billowing wildfire in dried marsh near the Lowry neighborhood Sunday afternoon may have been the product of arson, a fire official said Sunday night.
The blaze charred dozens of acres, snaking across a 100-acre open space at the foot of the Westerly Creek flood-control dam near East Lowry Boulevard and East Fairmount Drive.
Crews snuffed out the wildfire and guarded nearby apartments after the fire started shortly after 3 p.m.
Denver Assistant Fire Chief Greg Champlin said three teenagers were seen in the area.
“All I can say at this point is we’ve got some witnesses and we’re investigating,” he said.
Hundreds of parents and children had been engaged in soccer matches just a few yards away at Lowry Sports Park.
“At first, I thought it was some kind of controlled burn,” said Billy Pruett, one of the parents. “But pretty soon it was so thick, it obviously was out of control.”
Firefighters drew praise and gratitude from nervous Lowry residents after the blaze was snuffed out before a stiff breeze could fan the flames into their apartment complexes.
“That thing went up in 20 minutes, and those guys were flat-out on it,” said Jeremy Rutledge, as he looked over the charred side of east of the Lowry Park Apartments.
“This could have been bad.”
The billowing smoke was visible from across the metro region and, according to motorists, as far west as Idaho Springs.
The blaze snarled traffic on nearby Alameda Avenue for about two hours after flames were first spotted.
The fire was along the south and western rims in the flood control basin immediately west of Mira Vista Golf Course where Denver and Arapahoe counties meet. Fire crews from Denver, Aurora and South Metro Fire Rescue battled the blaze.
Much of the Front Range was under a fire weather watch Sunday, as dry weather, low humidity and wind gusts of up to 40 mph provided ripe conditions for a blaze.
The fire started in cattails, and crews quickly took up a defense at nearby apartments, Champlin said. And though there was a lot of smoke, there wasn’t much fire in the short scrub that produced it, witnesses said.
The fire was subdued within an hour, and by 5 p.m., it was out.
Some time later, a crew continued to hose down the opposite, outside slope of the earthen dam to keep it from rekindling in the dry grass on that side.
“It was a pretty exciting afternoon,” said Susan Walcott, who walked over from her apartment. “But exciting like being chased by an angry dog, because you don’t know what’s going to happen next.”
Joey Bunch: 303-954-1174 or jbunch@denverpost.com
