Garage Fire and Explosions Rock CO Neighborhood

An average Wednesday morning turned frantic for Michael and Lisa Gianetti, when a series of explosions and a fire destroyed the detached garage behind their home at 134 Marshall Place in Longmont.

"I was just looking out the bathroom window, when all of a sudden — kaboom," Michael Gianetti said.

Gianetti, whose bathroom window faces his detached garage, saw the door get blown off from the force of an explosion. Then he saw fire. He yelled for his wife to call 9-1-1. They grabbed their dog, Zoe, and ran out of the house.

Longmont police are continuing to investigate the cause of the fire. Longmont police Sgt. Tim Madigan said no one was injured. He said police received the 9-1-1 call just before 6:40 a.m.

Police spokesperson Robin Ericson said in a news release that when officers arrived, the detached garage behind the home was fully engulfed. There were multiple explosions from propane tanks.

Madigan said that when officers got to the scene, they heard three to four explosions.

"It sounds like there was an initial explosion and then some subsequent ones," he said. "The three or four (explosions) that happened after were post (fire)."

While firefighters fought the flames, police officers evacuated nearby homes. Ericson said firefighters got the fire under control just after 7 a.m. Crews remained on scene to douse hot spots. At that time, neighboring residents were allowed back into their homes.

Standing on his front lawn Wednesday, Gianetti said he has operated a hot air balloon business since the late '90s. He used the garage as his workshop. Gianetti said he had stored roughly nine tanks of propane in the garage, and that Tuesday night when he was in the garage he had not smelled any leaks.

Not much is left of the garage, Madigan said.

"The walls are completely gone," Madigan said. "It's pretty charred."

Neighbor Isla Delgado, who lives on the east side of the Gianettis, said Wednesday morning that she heard her mom yelling that the neighbors' house was on fire.

"We got up, rushed out of the house and grabbed the (two) dogs," Delgado said. "My brother heard an explosion. He thought that a tree had fallen down."

Outside, Delgado saw fire burning right outside her bedroom window. Her initial reactions, she said, were panic and shock.

"There were just these huge flames," she said. "By the time we got out, the whole thing was in flames."

Other neighbors were running from their homes at the same time, she said.

Gianetti said his workshop and two of his hot air balloons were destroyed in the blaze. While firefighters prevented the fire from spreading to their home, heat singed siding on the backside of their home, burned up their wooden patio and destroyed a utility trailer.

While their home is still habitable, they aren't able to return until their gas and power are turned back on.

"I'm just worried about tonight with the storm moving in," Lisa Gianetti said Wednesday

The couple said they had been in communication with some friends in Lyons, who they might be able to stay with.

Besides Longmont police and fire, officials with Xcel Energy and NextLight responded.

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