{"id":48304,"date":"2021-02-25T12:20:42","date_gmt":"2021-02-25T19:20:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/fire-results-in-total-loss-of-silverton-home\/"},"modified":"2021-02-25T19:20:42","modified_gmt":"2021-02-25T19:20:42","slug":"fire-results-in-total-loss-of-silverton-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/fire-results-in-total-loss-of-silverton-home\/","title":{"rendered":"Fire results in \u2018total loss\u2019 of Silverton home"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Tom
Tom Harms, owner of the home that was destroyed in a fire in Silverton, said the house and everything inside it was a complete loss.<\/span>Courtesy of Tom Harms<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

A house was destroyed by fire Tuesday in Silverton, but the cause of the blaze remains undetermined.<\/p>\n

The town of Silverton issued a notice that said the fire occurred at 1405 East 14th St., which is along the banks of the west side of the Animas River, adjacent to the bridge that crosses the river near Kendall Mountain Recreation Area.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe town has offered support to the property owner,\u201d town officials said in a statement. \u201cThe town and property owners will be investigating the cause of the fire.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lisa Branner, spokeswoman for the town, said she was not able to comment further about the incident.<\/p>\n

\"Fire
Fire officials are seeking a cause for a blaze that destroyed a home in Silverton on Tuesday. The owner of the property, Tom Harms, submitted this photo, but said it was from an unknown source.<\/span>Courtesy of Tom Harms<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Silverton-San Juan Fire and Rescue Authority Chief Gilbert Archuleta said there is speculation a welder contracted by the town of Silverton was in the vicinity to unfreeze a water line pipe and accidentally started the fire, but that remains unconfirmed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hear they were trying to get that thawed,\u201d he said. \u201cBut as far as saying what caused the fire, we\u2019re not sure. It\u2019s in the hands of the insurance companies now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Archuleta said the call for the fire came around 4:30 p.m. Tuesday. Two fire engines and more than 20 personnel battled the blaze, using an estimated 20,000 gallons of water to douse it.<\/p>\n

The fire was put out about 40 minutes after it broke out, Archuleta said, but still, the home was destroyed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a bad deal,\u201d he said. \u201cThe house is a total loss.\u201d<\/p>\n

No one was in the home at the time of the fire and no one was injured fighting the blaze, Archuleta said.<\/p>\n

Tom Harms, owner of the property, said he got the call Tuesday afternoon that his house was on fire.<\/p>\n

Harms, who lives in Durango, said the property is a vacation rental, and was not currently being rented.<\/p>\n

\u201cThank goodness no one was hurt,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Harms said he immediately went to Silverton after hearing the news.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere wasn\u2019t a single thing inside I felt I could retrieve,\u201d he said. \u201cI didn\u2019t even feel comfortable walking inside. It\u2019s pretty much charred and done.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A
A fire destroyed a house in Silverton on Tuesday, according to a fire official.<\/span>Courtesy of Tom Harms<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Harms said he purchased the property about five years ago, but the home has been in his circle of friends since around 1998. Many times, he said, the house was used to shelter search and rescue teams.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were a lot of memories there,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was an absolute beautiful place at a beautiful location.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harms said he, too, is working to get a better understanding of what caused the fire. He said he\u2019s going through the insurance process and declined to say what may have caused the blaze until he learns more.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would like to know what\u2019s going on, too,\u201d he said. \u201cNo one is hiding anything, but we\u2019re just going through the process.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is at least the second home fire within a year in Silverton<\/a>. In April, fire destroyed a home on County Road 110, displacing its owner amid the coronavirus pandemic.<\/p>\n

jromeo@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

remains under investigation, officials say<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":48305,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[1152,350,28,4259,1562,327],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-48304","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-emergency-incident","tag-fire","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter-sign-up","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\/48304","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=48304"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48304\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48305"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48304"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=48304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}