A small brush fire behind a business in Idaho Springs is serving as another reminder of just how little it takes to start a wildfire in Colorado this summer. The fire broke out Sunday evening near the 1800 block of Miner Street, just yards from homes inside Idaho Springs city limits. Before firefighters arrived, deputies with the Clear Creek County Sheriff's Office and officers with the Idaho Springs Police Department used fire extinguishers to knock down the flames, preventing what fire officials say could have become a much more serious incident.
"It was a little frustrating," Clear Creek Fire Authority Chief Jeremy Jones said. "I would assume everybody kind of knows better, but unfortunately, we're finding out some people, they don't."
According to the preliminary investigation, the fire was not started by a passing driver tossing a cigarette from Interstate 70, but a discarded cigarette or marijuana joint left behind by an employee of a nearby rafting company during a break.
"An employee of the business is the best we can tell," Jones said. "It's a local rafting company, and that's where the employees spend their non-work time or between tour time. We found a series of cigarettes in the area on the ground, and we determined it was a cigarette as a root cause."
CBS Colorado visited the rafting company following the investigation. A representative said the company was unaware of any employees smoking in the area where investigators said the fire started.
Fire officials...
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