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Basalt fire destroys building Monday morning, sends bullets flying from stored ammunition

Thomas Phippen
Glenwood Springs Post Independent

A farm workshop near the Elk Run neighborhood in Basalt caught fire Monday morning, causing ammunition stored there to shoot out of the building.

“When we showed up, it sounded like gunfire,” Roaring Fork Fire Rescue Chief Scott Thompson said. “There was stuff hitting the trees, hitting the house.”

One shell punctured a window in the house nearby, Thompson said.



“What happens is, the lead or bullet is heavier than the shell, so when it explodes, the lead stays there and the shell takes off,” Thompson explained.

The single-story structure is located on the Guido Family Ranch and the Colorado Tree Ranch on Two Rivers Road and also housed a wood shop. The cause of the fire is being investigated but it is not considered suspicious, Thompson said.




“We consider everything in the building a total loss,” he said. “When we got here we had smoke and flames coming out all the windows and doors.”

The fire was called in around 8:25 a.m. to Roaring Fork Fire Rescue. 

When the fire crews first arrived, they set up a defensive position to protect a historic barn nearby and as well as other structures, Thompson said. They were able to run hoses from a hydrant on Two Rivers Road about a quarter-mile to the burning structure.

Multiple apparatus and 24 personnel from Roaring Fork Fire were on the scene, as well as an engine and six Aspen firefighters, according to a news release, and Carbondale Fire provided ambulance and fire coverage for Roaring Fork Fire area until crews were available.

No one was injured in the fire, and no animals were harmed, Thompson said.