{"id":38009,"date":"2022-10-06T18:49:46","date_gmt":"2022-10-07T00:49:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/silverton-square-cafe-goes-up-in-flames-wednesday-morning\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T02:41:49","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T08:41:49","slug":"silverton-square-cafe-goes-up-in-flames-wednesday-morning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/silverton-square-cafe-goes-up-in-flames-wednesday-morning\/","title":{"rendered":"Silverton Square cafe goes up in flames Wednesday morning"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Two
Two families who co-own the Silverton Square cafe were evacuated from their lofts above a business early Wednesday in Silverton when a fire broke out in the business. (Courtesy of San Juan County Emergency Management)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Two families lost their homes early Wednesday when a store caught fire and flames spread to their lofts above the shop.<\/p>\n

The San Juan County Volunteer Fire Department received the report at 3:30 a.m. Wednesday and was on scene spraying the structure with water by 3:35 a.m., said DeAnne Gallegos, spokeswoman for San Juan County Emergency Management. Firefighters battled the blaze for nearly three hours and declared the fire suppressed at 6 a.m.<\/p>\n

No injuries were reported and the two families were safely evacuated, but the structure took \u201cextensive damage\u201d and is \u201cuninhabitable,\u201d the release says.<\/p>\n

The two affected families, who were not comfortable with releasing their names on Wednesday, lived above the Silverton Square cafe which they co-own. They have lived in Silverton over a year and opened shop in February, Gallegos said.<\/p>\n

\"The
The San Juan County Volunteer Fire Department received a report of fire at 3:30 a.m. Wednesday and were on scene spraying the structure by 3:35 a.m. Firefighters battled the blaze for nearly three hours and declared the fire suppressed at 6 a.m. (Courtesy of San Juan County Emergency Management)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"The
The San Juan County Volunteer Fire Department responded to a fire at 220 East 12th Street at 3:30 a.m. Wednesday. The Silverton Square cafe, which had been opened since February, suffered extensive damage, according to a news release from San Juan County Emergency Management. (Courtesy of San Juan County Emergency Management)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

She said the families\u2019 cellphones were lost to the fire because they had to leave in such a hurry, and although the flames may not have reached some parts of the residences, personal property was destroyed as a result of smoke and water damage.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very heartbreaking,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Jim Harper, owner of the Grand Imperial Hotel, immediately provided a family suite at the hotel for the displaced families the morning of the blaze. Fundraising efforts are already underway, Gallegos said.<\/p>\n

Money is being raised through Citizens State Bank under the Silverton Square Fire and Family Relief Fund and a GoFundMe and other local fundraisers are being coordinated, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce again, I would like to thank the team for what we do as a team,\u201d Fire Chief Gilbert Archuleta said in the release. The structure was fully engulfed in flames when we arrived, and we stepped up immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n

Seventeen firefighters and two engines were deployed, according to a news release from the emergency management office. Silverton Medical Rescue and the San Juan County Sheriff\u2019s Office also responded to support firefighters.<\/p>\n

The cause of the fire is under investigation, but San Juan County Emergency Management said in the release that Silverton residents should take care to clean their chimneys before winter arrives, avoid storing flammables inside homes or businesses, and clear doorways of debris and clutter.<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring this time of year when we reset our clocks, it is important to also change out batteries in your smoke and carbon monoxide detectors,\u201d the release says. \u201cRemember, \u2018fire won\u2019t wait \u2013 plan your escape.\u2019 Make sure you have a plan and a \u2018go bag\u2019 ready if you need to evacuate a dwelling immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n

cburney@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\"Money
Money is being raised through Citizens State Bank under the Silverton Square Fire and Family Relief Fund. A GoFundMe and other local fundraisers are also being coordinated for the two families who lost their homes and co-owned business in a fire that erupted early Wednesday morning in Silverton. (Courtesy of San Juan County Emergency Management)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

shelter in Grand Imperial Hotel; community fundraising efforts underway<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38010,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[364,350,28,1562,327],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-38009","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-community","tag-fire","tag-headlines","tag-san-juan-county-colorado","tag-silverton"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38009","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=38009"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38009\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":83876,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38009\/revisions\/83876"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38010"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38009"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=38009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}