Authorities urged caution with fireplaces, Christmas trees and lights as they wrapped up a holiday weekend that saw several families displaced by house fires.
Monday morning, a fire in the basement of a home at 1340 Hanover St. in Aurora sent two firefighters to the hospital with heat exhaustion. An 18-year-old man who was in the basement was treated for smoke inhalation.
Authorities are investigating what caused the fire, said Fire Battalion Chief Mark Turley.
Someone inside the home called 911 around 9:25 a.m. When firefighters arrived, everyone had escaped and heavy smoke was coming from the basement level.
“Within a few minutes, this fire completely grew out of hand,” Turley said, and he had to pull his crews out of the home and have them create a hole in the floor of the single-story home to put the fire out in the basement.
The home is uninhabitable, and the American Red Cross is assisting the three adults and five children who lived there.
Also Monday, a fire near Sedalia displaced one man. West Douglas County Fire Chief Terry Thompson said the fire likely started after a problem with the man’s fireplace, and it caused extensive smoke damage to the house on West Winnebago Way. A neighbor rescued the man after seeing the smoke. The man was not seriously injured. The neighbor “saved his life, probably,” Thompson said.
Investigators are still trying to pinpoint the exact cause, but Thompson said homeowners need to perform regular maintenance on their fireplaces. “You should be checking out your fireplace and your chimney,” he said.
Though the Aurora fire’s cause isn’t known, Turley reminded people not to leave Christmas lights on when not at home and to check all cords and plug-ins to make sure they are working properly and not overloaded. He said a fire in Aurora on Saturday that displaced two people likely was caused by overloaded outlets.
Meanwhile, authorities are investigating the cause of a fire in the 1300 block of 100th Lane in Thornton that left three adults and three children temporarily homeless Sunday.
Early Saturday, a man died and two children and two dogs escaped from a house fire at 12123 W. Maryland Drive in Lakewood, West Metro Fire said.
