No injuries and only minor damage reported

Boulder County, Colo. -

On Wednesday, January 2, 2019 at 2:33pm deputies from the Boulder County Sheriff’s Office, as well as fire and medical personnel from Mountain View Fire, Boulder Rural Fire, Longmont Fire, Lafayette Fire, Louisville Fire, and Rocky Mountain Fire responded to the report of a structure fire at 6964 N. 79th Street, Niwot, in unincorporated Boulder County. The fire was reported to be on the roof of a single-story commercial strip mall at that address.

As the first responding units arrived on scene, they discovered that the roof of the Niwot Veterinary Clinic was smoking. The owner of the building, a former firefighter, had been at the location when the fire was first reported. He was able to climb onto the roof and use a fire extinguisher to knock down the flames. At this time, it appears the damage was contained to the roof of the building, with no apparent damage to the interior of the structure. The electricity to the building was shut off temporarily while firefighters were working the fire. Since the damage appears to only be to the exterior of the building, business operations are not anticipated to be impacted once the scene has been rendered safe by fire personnel.

The cause and origin of the fire is still being investigated, but at this time it appears that the fire may have been started by an exposed electrical “heat tape” on the roof, commonly used to keep ice from building up in gutters.

The associated case number for this incident is 19-32.

# # #

/s/ Sgt. Clay Leak