{"id":43956,"date":"2021-11-02T00:12:00","date_gmt":"2021-11-02T06:12:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/cortez-family-escapes-house-fire-uninjured-three-pets-rescued\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:16:33","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:16:33","slug":"cortez-family-escapes-house-fire-uninjured-three-pets-rescued","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/cortez-family-escapes-house-fire-uninjured-three-pets-rescued\/","title":{"rendered":"Cortez family escapes house fire uninjured; three pets rescued"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Two
Two dogs were rescued from a house fire on Road K.8 on Sunday morning. They suffered from smoke inhalation and were given oxygen by medics. (Courtesy Cortez Fire Protection District)<\/span>Courtesy Cortez Fire Protection District<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

A family of six and most of their pets escaped a house fire early Sunday morning on Road K.8 northwest of Cortez, minutes before firefighters arrived, said Charlie Borden, battalion chief for the Cortez Fire Protection District.<\/p>\n

Three other pets were rescued from the burning home. No injuries were reported.<\/p>\n

The fire was reported at 2:30 a.m. When firefighters arrived, it had engulfed the kitchen and dining room and was moving upstairs, Borden said.<\/p>\n

Flames were blowing out windows in the front and back of the house, he said.<\/p>\n

Fire crews and equipment from Lewis-Arriola and Dolores agencies also responded, along with the Southwest Health System ambulance.<\/p>\n

Firefighters poured water on the blaze and knocked it down in 15 minutes, Borden said, then searched for hot spots and did cleanup work for two hours.<\/p>\n

\"Firefighting
Firefighting crews responded to a house fire early Sunday morning northwest of Cortez. (Courtesy Cortez Fire Protection District)<\/span>Courtesy Cortez Fire Protection District<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Family members corralled most of their pets during their escape, but two puppies and a rabbit remained inside.<\/p>\n

Two Cortez firefighters found the dogs upstairs hiding under a bed and rescued them. A rabbit in a cage downstairs was also rescued.<\/p>\n

The dogs suffered from smoke inhalation. They were given oxygen by rescue crews and recovered.<\/p>\n

The fire started while the family was asleep, Borden said. A family member was alerted to the emergency when stored ammunition exploded from the heat of the fire.<\/p>\n

The fire caused damage, and contents of both rooms were lost. Smoke damage occurred throughout the home.<\/p>\n

\"Cortez
Cortez Fire Protection District, Lewis-Arriola Volunteer Fire Department and Dolores Volunteer Fire and Rescue responded to a house fire Sunday morning. The family escaped and there were no injuries. Pets were rescued. (Courtesy Cortez Fire Protection District)<\/span>Courtesy Cortez Fire Protection District<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The cause of the fire has not yet been determined.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was the middle of the night, we are really thankful everybody got out,\u201d Borden said.<\/p>\n

The family has been displaced until cleanup and rebuilding can take place. They were taken in by relatives.<\/p>\n

A fundraising drive has been organized to help the family recover and rebuild, Michelle Simmons said.<\/p>\n

Donations can be made to Dolores State Bank under the emergency account of Mariah and Crue Robertson.<\/p>\n

Donated clothing can be dropped off at the Montezuma Republicans office on Main Street in Cortez during business hours.<\/p>\n

jmimiaga@the-journal.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

and a rabbit were rescued by firefighters; family displaced<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43957,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[408,21,350,28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-43956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-charity","tag-cortez","tag-fire","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43956","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=43956"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43956\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85911,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43956\/revisions\/85911"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43956"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=43956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}