Audio By Carbonatix
Overnight, a fire reportedly broke out in a two-story garage on South Bryant Street in the community of Sheridan.
The blaze has been extinguished and is being mopped up at this hour.
But it remains newsworthy because representatives of the Denver Fire Department suspect that the garage housed a marijuana grow — and the DFD has long complained about the hazards of such residential operations.
Here’s a tweet from the scene by videographer Cody White….
#denverfire on scene of structure fire near Bryant and Hamden may be grow op according to scanner traffic pic.twitter.com/VJ7DrX0d2B
— cody white (@CodyCam) October 23, 2015
…and 7News reporter Eric Lupher….
Firefighters stumble on evidence of a marijuana grow in a burning garage. Details LIVE @7NewsNOW 430a pic.twitter.com/WOe3irUOUu
— Eric Lupher (@EricLupher7News) October 23, 2015
…who quotes a DFD spokesperson as saying firefighters noted the presence of extension cords, grow lights and the sort of narrow passageways that makes escape routes difficult to find.
Such topics were among those discussed this past March, when the Denver City Council voted for a 36-plant limit at unregulated pot grows.
The following excerpt from Thomas Mitchell’s piece on the decision spells out the department’s fears:
The Denver Fire Department and its head of marijuana policy, Ashley Kilroy, claim some of the unlicensed growing operations they’ve come across have multiple zoning hazards — including blocked exits, faulty electricity and mold exposure. Non-licensed growing warehouses aren’t required to register with the state, so any safety inspections only occur if someone alerts the city or the growers ask for one themselves.
Here’s part of the city’s reasoning, as seen in an excerpt from the bill: “This gap in regulation has resulted in a proliferation of large-scale, non-licensed and unregulated marijuana grow operations that present significant health and public safety concerns with multiple and persistent violations of city building, electrical, fire, and environmental safety regulations; and whereas, the marijuana produced by these large-scale, unregulated cultivation operations cannot be tracked, making it virtually impossible to verify that this marijuana is distributed in accordance with all applicable laws.”
Granted, the number of fires at unregulated grows hasn’t reached epidemic proportions, and there’s a tendency of the news media to over-hype those that do occur. Note a 2012 fire that prompted CBS4 to characterize grows as what our William Breathes described at the time as “the electrical-blaze equivalent of a ticking time bomb” and “deadly jungles full of booby traps.” In that case, however, the fire was exceedingly minor and had already been extinguished before firefighters arrived.
In this morning’s case, black marks can be seen on the portion of the garage visible from the street, and the DFD maintains that damage is more extensive around the back. However, there are no reports of injuries to firefighters or nearby residents.
Here’s the 7News report.
