Fire at self-storage facility in Evans causes damage to most of building

May 24--A fire Monday morning at a K & K Self Storage building in Evans damaged almost all the units in the structure.

About 8:30 a.m. Monday, a fire started in a K & K storage unit, 3951 Carson Ave., and quickly spread until Evans firefighters controlled the fire at 9:55 a.m., said Sharon Bowles with the Evans Fire Protection District.

The fire caused some form of damage to most of the building -- either through flame or smoke -- but firefighters managed to save 11 of the 26 units, Bowles said. No significant injuries resulted from the fire.

"I thought the fire department did an amazing job in terms of response time and taking care of (the fire) for us," said K & K Self Storage Manager Kip McLeland. "They called in several other fire departments for help. They did everything they could; it's just an unfortunate incident."

Although authorities don't yet have an official damage estimate, it could well be in the hundreds of thousands, Bowles said.

Platte Valley Fire Protection District, La Salle Fire Department, Greeley Fire Department and the Front Range Fire Rescue agencies also responded to the scene.

Although Evans Fire Protection District is investigating the cause of the fire, McLeland said he believes it started when a man illegally living in a storage unit had a candle fall over in his unit.

He said he found the man had been illegally living in the unit last week and told him to stop living in the unit immediately. McLeland said he gave him a few days to get his belongings out. It appeared the man cooperated, but he came back. Monday morning, he ran to the storage units' office to report the fire after it started and he couldn't put it out himself, McLeland said.

"There are a lot of people that store personal things in there and once they're gone, they're gone and that's too bad. I feel really bad for the occupants," he said. "There's pretty extensive damage to the majority of the units in the building from total destruction to smoke damage."

Although the business has insurance, it will take some time to get everything cleaned up and repaired or rebuilt, McLeland said. The fire only damaged one building, and the business has several, so they will remain open while they take care of the damaged building.

"It'll just be a lengthy process," he said, "getting things put back together again."

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