ARVADA, Colo. — Fire investigators are still looking into the cause of a fire that ripped through an Arvada storage facility this week.
The blaze damaged the nearly 80 units at StorQuest Self Storage, in one way or another, according to a spokesperson with the Arvada Fire Department. The spokesperson said all of the units were either impacted by fire, smoke or water damage.
Russell Breski, his fiancée, Dakota Conway, and their two kids had kept belongings in their storage unit for the past couple of years.
"As I'm driving down here, I just keep thinking to myself, like, 'It can't be ours. It can't be our unit,'" said Breski.
But that hope quickly dwindled when Breski said he saw the aerial footage of the fire.
"I see our building is up in flames," he said. "I knew that it was gone."
Breski's fiancée, Dakota, said they're currently in the process of moving into their first home, and had about half of their belongings in the unit.
"We had furniture in there," she said. "It was packed full because of us moving, you know, so we had more in there than we usually would."
She continued, "It's devastating because we were moving into a house on Tuesday next week," added Breski, "Since we were moving soon. I was slowly packing stuff there so I can just get it all in one spot. So a lot of my clothes, a lot of her clothes, shoes, purses, about half of his [son's] toys."
The family said they do have insurance but said it's capped at $3,000 and they are sure it won't cover all of the items they had.
In addition to the household items they were planning on taking to their new home, Breski said several of their belongings are irreplaceable.
Insuring storage units: What to know
Storage units and their contents typically fall under homeowner's or renter's insurance. Denver7's Jason Gruenauer speaks with Carole Walker with the Rocky Mountain Insurance Association to learn more about the insurance implications, and what to do in the event of a loss of items, after Tuesday's Arvada fire. Watch their interview in the video player above.
"You know, there's photo albums when my grandpa was in high school. My mom growing up. My grandpa passed away a couple years ago, so I had his golf clubs set," he said.
The family has since launched a fundraiser to raise money to purchase new items ahead of their move next week.
"We're still excited to get a house for the kids. But it's definitely going to make it harder," added Conway.
Wednesday morning, fire investigators were still on the scene working to determine the origin and cause of the fire.
Arvada Fire told Denver7 that the two firefighters who suffered minor injuries are back home recovering.
We reached out to StorQuest for a statement but they declined our request for comment.
