Fire destroys Midwest Fabrication and Steel building in Pueblo

An early-morning fire destroyed an industrial building owned by Midwest Fabrication and Steel.

When firefighters arrived at around 1:15 a.m. Friday, they found flames as high as seven feet rushing out of the roof of the building.

It took firefighters six hours to put out the flames, according to fire inspector Erik Duran.

“It is a brick structure with a wood roof,” Duran said. “There is a lot of lumber that burns easily.”

Pat McConnell and his family have owned the company for 28 years. He said the destroyed building is one of four on the property at 1015 E. Northern Ave.

“We’re lucky that nobody got hurt and that’s the most important thing,” he said.

The fire destroyed McConnell’s machine shop, which housed the company’s computers and several machines.

“We did a lot of machining here. A lot of the parts for some of the frame assemblies that we made, we machined here. We did also cutting in this building. So we had two saws in there as well,” said Gwen McConnell, Pat McConnell’s daughter. “So we’re kind of dead in the ground right there.”

Investigators are looking over the damage and are trying to determine the cause of the fire.

“We’re really hoping for some answers. What caused the fire? This building’s an old building and it’s been here for a long time. We were hoping to keep it here for a long time as well,” said Gwen McConnell.

No one was in the building at the time.

Thirty-six people work at Midwest Fabrication and Steel. The company says all employees will be back to work on Monday.

One firefighter suffered a minor injury after tripping on a hose. The firefighter was taken to the hospital as a precaution and has since been released.