AURORA — When Vera Petrolay woke up early Saturday, she was surrounded by smoke. All she could hear was breaking glass.
Petrolay quickly got dressed and ran to her front door to find the way out of her second-story apartment was engulfed in flames.
“There were all these flames shooting out,” Petrolay said, holding back tears, remembering the terror she had faced.
She eventually was rescued by a firefighter. But other victims of an early-morning blaze at the Aspen Wood Apartments weren’t so lucky.
One woman was killed and 12 were injured in the fire that started in a ground-level apartment at the three-story building at 532 Potomac St., according to Capt. Allen Robnett, spokesman for the Aurora Fire Department.
Relatives told 9News the dead woman was Karen Dias, 66, who died when she fell from a balcony.
“She was just a loving, caring lady,” her son, Samuel Dias, told the TV station.
Firefighters arrived at 5:49 a.m. and found the apartment and main staircase consumed by flames.
Residents huddled on balconies and screamed for help from windows.
“You could feel the heat,” said Pete Rodriguez, who lives in the building across from the fire. “All I could hear was windows breaking, sirens everywhere.”
The fire took only minutes to spread from the ground apartment to the top of the stairwell. Rodriguez said he saw a family of four huddled on a third-story balcony.
Firefighters used ladders to rescue about 10 people from balconies and windows, including Petrolay, who was rescued from a back window. She and several other residents were taken to the hospital for treatment of smoke inhalation. One was in critical condition.
“I’m just grateful I got out,” Petrolay said.
Three Aurora police officers received minor injuries as they helped people trapped in their apartments. Many people were forced to lower their loved ones down the side of the building, officers catching some after a few moments of free fall.
Saturday afternoon, firefighters were still at the apartment building, where mangled window screens and shattered glass peppered the ground.
Several residents expressed concern about fire safety in the older complex’s various free-standing buildings. Some claimed there are not enough fire extinguishers and that smoke alarms are faulty.
The building did not have any previous violations that Robnett was aware of, he said. Apartment buildings are inspected for fire safety codes every year.
The building does not have an emergency sprinkler system and was likely grandfathered in when new regulations were adopted that require apartment buildings to have them, Robnett said.
Three of the 12 units in the building were destroyed and the rest were damaged by smoke and water, a Red Cross representative said. The building was ruled inhabitable, and it was not known when residents would be able to re-enter.
Four families were placed in hotel rooms, and other residents are staying with family and friends.
The cause of the fire is still under investigation.
Jordan Steffen: 303-954-1794 or jsteffen@denverpost.com
