Summit County Citizens Voice

Quick thinking, smoke detectors and a well-placed garden hose help Mesa Cortina resident exinguish threatening blaze

Marcus Mathieu Mirazo used a garden hose to put out a threatening kitchen fire at his Mesa Cortina home. PHOTO BY LAKE DILLON FIRE-RESCUE.

By Summit Voice

SUMMIT COUNTY — A quick-thinking Mesa Cortina resident used a garden hose Tuesday to extinguish a kitchen fire that threatened to destroy his home at 041 King’s Court.

Marcus Mathieu Mirazo said the beeping of a neighbor’s smoke detector woke him up Tuesday afternoon while he was napping between jobs. When he walked outside to investigate, he noticed smoke pouring from the upstairs eaves.

Mirazo quickly hooked up a garden hose and started spraying the flames that had started slipping out the cracking the kitchen window. He hauled the hose up an external stairway, broke up a door window with a rock and hosed down the rolling flames that by that time had nearly engulfed the small kitchen.

Then, Mirazo opened another door to the upstairs unit and called for the residents’ dogs, convincing one – a black Labrador Retriever named Deuce – to dart out through the billowing black smoke.

“It was kind of scary, but I knew I had to do something, for the guys, for the dogs and for my home,” Mirazo said.

Firefighters from Lake Dillon Fire-Rescue and Red, White & Blue Fire arrived after another neighbor called 9-1-1, but by then, Mirazo had almost singlehandedly extinguished the fire.

Worried that one resident might have been home, firefighters conducted a hasty search, finding only the second dog, a German Shepherd mix named Cleo, cowering beneath a computer stand but otherwise all right.

The damage was limited to the kitchen and estimated at $10,000 to $15,000. Fire officials believe it was caused by a pizza box left on an electric range.

“It could have been so much worse,” said Lake Dilon Fire-Rescue Deputy Chief Jeff Berino. “That whole place could have burned down. He saved thousands of dollars of damage. He did everything right.”

Firefighters said the presence of working smoke detectors undoubtedly saved the building and possibly lives.

Upstairs residents Peter Bullard, David Gross and Spencer Comfort all were at work when the fire broke out, and they offered praise and heartfelt appreciation for Mirazo’s quick work.

“We didn’t know what to expect. I was expecting just a pile of sticks,” Gross said. “When I got home, “I asked (Mirazo): ‘How did they put the fire out?’ He said: ‘I used the hose.’ I was like, are you serious?”

Filed under: Colorado, Summit County Colorado, Summit County news Tagged: | fires, Lake Dillon Fire Rescue, Mesa Cortina, Red, Summit County Colorado, Summit County News, White & Blue Fire protection district