Updated at 4:05 p.m. on Wednesday, March 12, 2025
A construction crew was working at the main building of the Eastern Star Masonic Retirement Campus on Wednesday when they dug into a power line, apparently triggering a fire and explosion that left eight people hospitalized, fire officials said.
When crews first responded to the scene around 11:30 a.m., they only knew about a fire outside the building, Denver Fire Department Capt. Luis Cedillo said.
“The problem is that it was a very chaotic scene when crews arrived. The original reports stated that it was going to be an external fire, outside the building,” Cedillo said.
But as they extinguished the outdoor fire, they realized that the sprinkler system inside the building had been activated. They headed inside the building within about 10 minutes of reaching the scene, Cedillo said.
“It really alerted the officers and companies on scene — let’s go investigate … let’s verify, confirm,” Cedillo said.
We still don't know how badly victims were injured
Once inside, they checked 10 people for injuries. Eight were hospitalized. Another 87 people had to be moved to temporary housing.
“Crews were quickly able to assist people — we began to triage them, and the people who needed medical care were quickly transported,” Cedillo said.
It’s unclear how badly the victims were injured, what their current status is or where they are hospitalized.
The explosion appears to have happened simultaneously to the transformer fire.
"(The crews) were digging and they hit a power line, which caused the explosion and caused the [transformer] to go on fire," Cedillo said.
He added: “What exactly exploded, we don’t know.”
Cedillo credited fire crews for realizing that the original call was incomplete.
“Our crews did an incredible job, because sometimes we get focused on just the fire, but they realized that there was something going on there,” he said.
An unusual occurrence at a 'very quiet' community
Eastern Star offers a mix of independent living, assisted living and memory care, with at least 170 residences. The community sits on 19 acres, with numerous smaller “patio homes” surrounding a larger central building.
The community is located just north of East Yale Avenue and South Quebec Street.
Jane Cahn, who lives in one of the patio homes, was away at the time of the fire. A neighbor called to say there was black smoke rising from the community.
"This is something of a magnitude that's not happened since I've been here," Cahn said.
Normally, she and her friend Marilyn Anderson said, the community is "very quiet," though they had been planning a party for Saturday. Both were concerned for their injured neighbors.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
