AURORA, Colo. — Amid Christmas decorations and lights in an Aurora neighborhood, people stopped to look at another sight: two homes that were damaged Saturday after a propane grill reignited.
That evening, Aurora Fire Rescue (AFR) responded to the area of Elk Way and E. Ohio Drive around 8 p.m. after 911 callers reported that a two-story house was "fully engulfed" in flames, AFR said. Crews on four engines and three ladder trucks responded.
A family of five, including a newborn, evacuated before they arrived. Firefighters rescued a dog, which was not injured.
The crews fought fire on all three levels of the home. AFR said the fire spread to the back corner of a nearby two-story house, and those residents also evacuated safely. Crews also worked to extinguish the fire that had reached the second home.
Both families were displaced due to the damage and cannot return home yet.
"This looks like it's a cooking fire that was related to the grill," said AFR Batallion Chief Brian Good. "It's a good point to talk about — with the grills — because what it looks like is the grease trap underneath was full of grease. It happened to ignite."
AFR said the family in the first home had been eating a steak dinner they had cooked on an outdoor propane grill when the grill burst into flames.
Good stressed the importance of cleaning grills to prevent this sort of grease buildup. He also suggested keeping grills at least 10 feet from a home.
"That's a good tip because that was part of the problem with this fire. It ignited a wood railing that then was attached to the house and spread to the house," Good said.
Benis Sone, who lives nearby, said he knows how difficult it is to afford a house in that neighborhood.
"And get in the house less than two years ago and it catches or it burns down — it's a tragedy. It’s sad," he said.
Amber Thomas, who just moved into the neighborhood a week ago, said she has felt the support of the community, which has created a GoFundMe to help the family from the house that first caught fire.
"You can tell everybody is so loving and wanting to support one another," Thomas said. "We're really trying to get the community together, whether it's funds, diapers, anything. The holiday season is coming up and unfortunately, they're without a home. But if we can come together as a community with a GoFundMe, Amazon registry, whatever it may be, I feel as though we can really help them and give them some grace and this holiday spirit."
Throughout Sunday morning neighbors spoke with the family and helped them clean out their home. Denver7 reached out to the family, who declined an interview.
"We really feel the pain, that in a period like this, they're not going to be able to celebrate in their own house," Sone said. "But hopefully they have families that they can get together with and celebrate Christmas and New Year with them, but they should know that they are in our thoughts and our prayers."
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