ESTES PARK — An early-morning blaze gutted a historic downtown landmark and endangered livelihoods Monday but fortunately spared lives, say residents and fire officials.
“God was watching over us; it could have been so much worse,” said Jenna MacGregor, the daughter of the owner of the 95-year-old Park Theatre Mall.
MacGregor’s mother, Sharon Seeley, lived in a four-bedroom apartment above the mall, which housed 13 businesses, including the Christmas-themed Home for the Holidays. Seeley, who was in Denver over the weekend, learned of the blaze early Monday.
Seeley’s apartment not only played host to MacGregor and her family, but to the mall’s tenants, who frequently visited.
“The owners were like family,” MacGregor said. “We worked on marketing plans and other things we needed to do to make everyone successful. This is just devastating.”
By 10:30 a.m., the roof of the building had collapsed. Fire crews were still dousing the flames late Monday afternoon while investigators were piecing together the cause of the fire, which spared the neighboring Park Theatre, one of the oldest operating theaters in the country.
Federal Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agents are assisting the Estes Park Volunteer Fire Department in the investigation.
“Having them on board puts us in the hands of experts,” city spokeswoman Sue Pinkham said, adding it could be days before an exact cause is determined.
Firefighters from Loveland, Fort Collins, Allenspark, Pinewood Springs and Glen Haven also responded.
Dozens, if not hundreds, of people, mostly local, lined hillsides and took up spots along the Big Thompson River to watch the blaze, which began about 6:19 a.m.
High winds whipped the blaze, which led to the evacuation of nearby businesses and the suspension of electric service for several hours.
Park Theatre Mall, built in 1914, was originally a carriage house and livery. It had no fire alarms or sprinkler systems.
Norm Duecker, who owned and operated The Music Box in the mall for 22 years, said he was devastated by the loss of his store. His wife, Barbara, who helped run the store and their online music-box catalog, died in February.
“I was in total shock. At this point, I’m a little old to start over again. Frankly, I don’t know what I’m going to do,” said Duecker, 78, who spent the morning calling suppliers to cancel orders.
Paul Fischman, owner of the 14’ers Cafe, which also was destroyed in the fire, said he arrived for work about 6:30 a.m. and saw flames and smoke.
“I just felt helpless,” he said. “There is just nothing you can do.”
Denise Pixler, manager of Rocky Mountain Pharmacy, said that when the fire started, flames were shooting three to four stories high and that traffic in town came to a standstill.
The mall is on the south side of the 100 block of East Elkhorn Avenue, the main street through town.
“It’s been a fixture in this town,” said Mayor Bill Pinkham, the husband of Sue Pinkham. He called the loss of the businesses “absolutely a tragedy.”
Because of the construction of the building, which was renovated in the 1970s, firefighters were forced to fight the flames from the outside with ladder trucks.
Bob Rappel, owner of The Munchin’ House, an ice-cream parlor adjacent to the mall, watched from a bridge a few yards away as firefighters sprayed water on the smoldering structure.
“As of now, it does not look too promising for me,” he said. “I came here in 1969 from (the University of Colorado) and wondered what I was going to do. All this time later, I’m standing on this bridge, once again wondering what I’m gonna do.”
Bill Pinkham said he will meet with city administrators to determine what assistance can be given to the owners of the burned businesses.
He said the area will be cordoned off so investigators can examine the rubble and determine what caused the fire.
Fischman, the cafe owner, said he tried to sell his business a few years ago but because of the banking crisis, he couldn’t find a buyer. “But this was not the way I wanted to go out.”
“You have to look at the silver lining — nobody got hurt; it was the end of the season,” he said. “You just hope everybody had insurance and that the insurance companies do the right thing.”
Kieran Nicholson contributed to this report.
Howard Pankratz: 303-954-1939 or hpankratz@denverpost.com
This article has been corrected in this online archive. Originally, due to an editing error, the
wrong name was given for the Christmas-themed store that burned in the Park Theatre Mall
fire Monday in Estes Park. Home for the Holidays was destroyed in the fire.
