Fire leaves couple homeless

Aaron Storms

01/04/2007 - A frantic call came to the 911 operator at 7:30 Saturday morning, with the homeowner stating that her house was on fire. After she was instructed to get out of her home immediately, all the appropriate agencies were engaged by the dispatcher, with the High Country Fire Department team heading up the efforts under direction of Fire Chief Roger Durham.

  Dr. Michael Camarata got up early Saturday morning to go in to work after being out of town on vacation, but encountered a Union Pacific freight train blocking South Beaver Creek Road not far from his home. After waiting 45 minutes for the train to move, he gave up and returned home, only to find his wife Patricia standing in their front yard in her bathrobe watching the billowing smoke pouring from their home.

  Heavy snow hampered the firefighting efforts, and one Pinecliffe firefighter was blocked from accessing the scene by the train. The forty firefighters that responded blocked off Pactolus Road; it’s a one-way street, so it was difficult to get crews and equipment up the hill to the fire. Frozen water supplies prevented a consistent water supply. Firefighters were able to knock down the fire, only to have it rekindle when the water supply ran out while waiting for another water tender truck to arrive. Fire Chiefs were told by the Camaratas that the smoke alarms were not operational because the batteries had been removed to stop the incessant beeping, but of course this is always a very bad idea. Fortunately, there were no injuries, no children, and the family pets were still at the private kennels off-site from the vacation.

  A massive response effort was put forth by nearly all the community emergency response teams—the Gilpin County Sheriff’s Office under direction of Sheriff Bruce Hartman, the Colorado Sierra Fire Department under direction of Fire Chief Ron Saeger, the Coal Creek Fire Department, the Nederland Fire Department, the Gilpin County Victim’s Advocate, and the Red Cross. The Gilpin County Animal Response Team was called for help with boarding the four dogs as the time had run out for the dogs at the private kennel and the couple didn’t have funds to continue with that.

  As standard procedure, Chief Durham asked the Colorado Bureau of Investigations to come up and do their root-cause analysis as to what triggered the fire, but no foul play is suspected. The CBI report has not yet been received by the Gilpin County Sheriff’s Office.

  The Central City Fire Department under direction of Fire Chief Gary Allen was left to cover the middle and north areas of Gilpin County, and ended up responding to a medical emergency call on South Beaver Road in the La Chula subdivision, not far from the other fire scene. They had to enlist the help of the Gilpin County Road & Bridge team to plow a path to that medical emergency. The Black Hawk Fire Department was also on alert to cover the south portion of Gilpin County as needed.

  The home at 22 Winks Way in the Pactolus development just west of the town of Pinecliffe was completely destroyed, with the couple only getting away with the clothes on their backs.