Vacant home catches fire, Pueblo fire says it’s possibly related to unhoused people
PUEBLO, Colo. (KRDO) - On Wednesday, the Pueblo Fire Department (PFD) received a call just after 7:00 a.m. about a house fire on Routt Ave. in the Bessemer neighborhood.
On scene, they realized, the two-story home was vacant. PFD said they saw several transients exit the building while they working the fire. They said it could have been people who were possibly homeless looking to get warm.
"We do have some vacant properties in Pueblo when those properties aren't secured, they have the tendency to get people inside of them, especially on cold nights like last night," said Tim Trujillo, Pueblo Fire Department Public Information Officer (PIO)
No injuries were reported.
"I think it goes for anywhere. Secure your property. Check on your property regularly. Make those calls to code enforcement to the officials in charge and make sure that people aren't starting to tend to habitation those premises over an extended period of time," said Trujillo.
Trujillo said it's not the first time they have had issues with this property.
"I know that they did have code enforcement in the back cleaning up some garbage last week. And so it has been on the radar," Trujillo.
However, the owner of the Buffalo Bar, Edward Sena, said he's frustrated that this happened right behind his business.
"We just we're gonna have to figure this one out. It's going to be a continuing problem until we get some kind of control over it," said Sena.
PFD said this issue with vacant and abandoned homes is not anything new and it happens all over the county, but they expect to continue dealing with issues like this as we head into Winter.
Firefighters are still investigating the official cause, but they tell us they believe it's likely related to unhoused people trying to get warm.
KRDO13 reached out to code enforcement they told us last week they took action against the home owner for the condition of the house. We followed up and asked if that means that there was a ticket issued but we have not received clarification on that yet.
