Eleven days after fire destroyed three buildings on Main Avenue, firefighters Tuesday returned control of the charred remains to their owners.
The owners now must work with the city of Durango to begin demolition and
redevelopment.
Also Tuesday, a large hood system where the fire is believed to have started was removed from
the rubble at Seasons Rotisserie & Grill. The exhaust system was loaded onto a flatbed trailer to be carted away
for additional examination.
Farmers Insurance paid to have the hood system removed.
Fire investigators have been sifting through the ashes to determine what conditions existed
before last month's fire, said Dan Noonan, chief of the Durango Fire & Rescue Authority. While fire is an
ultimate consumer, it usually leaves signs of how it sparked, he said.
That is what insurance companies and firefighters hope to find from a closer inspection of
the kitchen stove hood system.
"Every fire is an opportunity to strengthen prevention," Noonan said.
A separate investigation is being conducted to determine the cause of an explosion during the
Feb. 22 fire. Nine firefighters were injured in the explosion, Noonan said. As of Tuesday, three of those
firefighters had not yet been cleared to return to work.
"If I knew it was going to occur, I wouldn't have had anybody on the roof," Noonan said. "It
just exacerbated an already bad situation."
Noonan invited the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health to assist with the
investigation into why the explosion occurred at Le Rendezvous Swiss Bakery.
Determining how the blast occurred will help firefighters avoid similar situations in the
future, said Dave Abercrombie, spokesman for the fire department.
"It does have a psychological impact," he said. "That's as close as any one of us wants to
come to having a fatality."
A large part of DFRA's job is to inspect buildings and ensure fire codes are followed, Noonan
said. If business owners install new equipment, they should consult with the fire department to ensure proper safety,
he said.
And if building owners do additions or modifications, they too should consult the fire
department.
"When any component is installed in your business, we want to make sure it is installed
correctly," Noonan said.
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