01/18/2024
Heather Christensen (constituent) attended my Town Hall last evening and posted this recap on her page, SE Aurora Resident Information. Thanks for taking such detailed notes.
🚒 Update: Fire on Alta Addison Multi Family Building 🚒
I attended the Ward VI City Council meeting last night led by City Council Representative Francoise Bergan. I have several updates to post from that meeting, but wanted to give you all an update on the status of the Alta Addison property as the investigation continues.
Aurora Fire and Rescue presented the update which included the following facts-and they were able to clarify some rumors that I saw online regarding the fire.
• Rumor Debunked: "Aurora and Fire and Rescue had problems getting water to the site." NOT TRUE-there was plenty of water available and accessible for them to fight the fire. The problem was that due to the site being new construction, the site's hydrants had yet to be included in Aurora Fire and Rescue's system so they did not know the location of the hydrants until they were on site instead of ahead of time.
• Rumor Debunked: "Exploding Propane Tanks Caused the Fire, or Contributed to It." NOT TRUE-although there were several propane tanks on site, they were kept at bay to keep them from exploding and the Chief Battalion had no knowledge of any tanks exploding and has not seen evidence of that himself when he has been on site.
Additional Facts Disclosed:
• There was about $60 million dollars in damage caused to the site from the fire.
• Arson is suspected-not yet proven. It is still an ongoing investigation.
• There was a small problem with Aurora Fire and Rescue initially accessing the site to fight the fire. This was due to security perimeter fencing that was locked at the time of response, but it was quickly resolved with bolt cutters and they were able to get on site.
• This fire has been determined NOT to be connected to the other multifamily affordable housing complex that caught fire on Colfax.
• The investigation team has several leads for the cause of the fire and it is an active criminal investigation.