{"id":33224,"date":"2023-06-27T17:56:43","date_gmt":"2023-06-27T23:56:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/fire-in-cortez-apartment-building-displaces-residents\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T02:07:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T08:07:13","slug":"fire-in-cortez-apartment-building-displaces-residents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/fire-in-cortez-apartment-building-displaces-residents\/","title":{"rendered":"Fire in Cortez apartment building displaces residents"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"A
A Cortez police officer secures the scene at Coronado Avenue and Elm Street as a fire burns a six-unit apartment building Tuesday morning at 214 W. Coronado Ave. (The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

A fire forced the evacuation of a six-unit apartment in Cortez, waking neighbors to a smoke-filled block as fire engines and police responded in force to the scene.<\/p>\n

The building at 214 W. Coronado Ave., three blocks north of Montezuma Avenue, was filled with smoke as firefighters from the Cortez Fire Protection District battled the blaze, focusing their attention on the building\u2019s blackened and burning northeast corner.<\/p>\n

Megan Canada, who lives across the street, said she and her son, Xander, were sleeping when the fire broke out, about 8:30 a.m.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe smelled smoke, and my son ran out with his little fire extinguisher,\u201d she said. \u201cThe fire started on the right corner.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A
A fire caused the evacuation of a six-unit apartment building Tuesday morning at 214 W. Coronado Ave. in Cortez. (Courtesy Photo)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Lewis-Arriola and Dolores fire departments were called for mutual aid. Crews worked quickly to get the blaze extinguished. Canada estimated that crews got the blaze under control in 20 minutes.<\/p>\n

Cory Elliot, battalion chief for Cortez Fire Protection District, told a Journal<\/em> reporter that the cause of the fire was still under investigation.<\/p>\n

There was \u201cheavy fire damage to three of the six. The other three had pretty significant smoke damage, but no structural damage that we found,\u201d Elliot said. All six apartments have been displaced, and Red Cross was notified and on the way.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had reports of a cat, but I never saw the cat,\u201d Elliot stated. Animal control officer responded to the scene, but it is unclear if they found any animals on the property.<\/p>\n

An ambulance from Southwest Health System responded to the scene, and \u201cone male patient was transported\u201d for care, according to the battalion chief. The extent of the man\u2019s injuries was unknown.<\/p>\n

Atmos Energy and Empire Electric Association responded to the scene to secure the utilities to the apartment building. Cortez Police Department was on scene to control traffic and ensure residents and neighbors were at a safe distance from the blaze.<\/p>\n

This article may be updated as more information becomes available.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Cortez
Cortez police officers secure the scene at Coronado Avenue and Elm Street Tuesday morning. (The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"A
A neighbor watches as crews fight a fire Tuesday morning at 214 W. Coronado Ave. in Cortez. (The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"A
A firefighters pulls a screen off a vent of an apartment Tuesday morning at 214 W. Coronado Ave. in Cortez. (The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"A
A firefighters pulls a screen off a vent of an apartment Tuesday morning at 214 W. Coronado Ave. in Cortez. (The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Firefighters,
Firefighters, police officers and neighbors at the scene of a fire Tuesday morning at 214 W. Coronado Ave. in Cortez. (The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Firefighters
Firefighters douse hot spots after a fire at a six-unit apartment building Tuesday morning at 214 W. Coronado Ave. in Cortez. (The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

expected to aid the displaced residents<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":33225,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-33224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33224","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33224"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33224\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":82112,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33224\/revisions\/82112"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33225"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33224"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=33224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}