Hot liquid glass causes hours-long fire at Colorado bottling facility

More than 50 firefighters from several Colorado fire departments worked for hours to contain a fire at the Rocky Mountain Bottle Company Sunday morning. This fire appears to have been caused by a spill of hot liquid glass in the establishment, according to investigators.

The first reports of a fire at the bottling facility came in just before 1 a.m. and the Arvada Fire Department responded to the scene near Miller Street and West 50th Avenue. As crews worked to extinguish this fire and treat workers, additional units from the Fairmount Fire Protection District and West Metro Fire Rescue responded to assist.

The liquid glass spill was caused by an equipment malfunction, Arvada FD said, and the resulting fire caused heavy smoke. Five workers and a firefighter were evaluated at the scene for their injuries, but none were serious enough to be taken to hospital.

Firefighters described the incident as involving “hot, dark and noisy conditions”, where crews had to travel great distances with fire hoses to locate the fire's starting point.

After a fire in a storage unit and one fiery plane crash, the Arvada Fire Department remained busy. Fortunately, no one was taken to hospital during the fire on Sunday morning.

“This has been a busy week in our district, with several notable incidents,” the department said in a statement. “We are proud of our staff, who bring a high level of skill, training and dedication to emergencies large and small, 24 hours a day! »

The bottling plant was also the scene of a fire last summer in the basement of the building. In this fire, several people were injured, but they were relatively minor. Firefighters also appear well prepared to deal with fires at the facility, having conducted “fire simulation” training scenarios there in 2018.

CBS News Colorado reached out to Rocky Mountain Bottle Company for comment but did not immediately receive a response Sunday afternoon.