Firefighters Call Colorado Warehouse Fire Suspicious

Jan. 14--A three-alarm warehouse fire near downtown Colorado Springs Friday evening filled the city's skies with smoke.

Flames shot into the air as Colorado Springs firefighters doused the unused, but stuffed full building from ladder trucks in an effort to bring it under control.

The warehouse, one of seven buildings in the area owned by Crissey Holdings LLC (formerly Crissey Fowler Lumber Co.), is near the intersection of South Sierra Madre Street and Vermijo Avenue.

"They're just hitting it with big water from all directions," said Lt. Jeff Sievers, noting that it was a "defensive attack."

The fire was reported just after 7 p.m., and it quickly became a two-alarm fire. A call for additional trucks and engines was made about 8 p.m., making it a three-alarm fire, the Colorado Springs Fire Department said in a tweet.

The blaze was declared under control about 8:20 p.m.; no injuries were reported.

Gabrielle Parada said she was driving by and noticed smoke billowing from top of the building. Her husband jumped from car and banged on door as flames began shooting through the roof, she said.

"I was scared," she said, adding that she called 911.

Ann Brosh, a partner with Crissey Holding, said the building was filled with filing cabinets, papers and other items left by previous tenants.

"Junk," she said, as she watched the fire. "If any building had to go, that would be the one."

Sievers said flames were shooting through the roof when firefighters arrived, and the fire continued to burn inside the metal-covered, wood-frame warehouse more than an hour later.

He said the fire would be investigated as suspicious, noting that the owners reported having trouble with vagrants getting into the building in the past.

"They don't just happen on their own," he said of the fire.

An adjacent vehicle-storage business was moving vehicles out of its warehouse as a precaution Friday night.

Check back at gazette.com for more on this developing story.