TORRINGTON – Six families are displaced and five homes sustained damage after a row of townhouses caught fire on East L Street Tuesday. The fire was re-kindled in the early morning hours Wednesday, causing further damage to the properties. 

According to Torrington Volunteer Fire Department Assistant Chief Rick Donbraska, the cause of the fire is under investigation by the Wyoming Fire Marshall. 

“The original house, the one we call the fire house, was heavily damaged,” Donbraska said. “The rest of them were damaged quite a bit. Last night, we had the re-kindle and we were out there until about 7 a.m. It moved south into another home, so we took the roof off that. It had some substantial damage, also.”

Donbraska said no one in the homes was hurt during the blaze, but one Torrington firefighter was seen by doctors at Banner Community Hospital. 

“We had one firefighter we sent to the hospital,” Donbraska said. “He had some Sheetrock come down on him, and we just wanted to make sure he was OK. They treated and released him.”

Units from Torrington, the Lingle Volunteer Fire Department and the Scottsbluff, Neb. Fire Department responded to the initial call-out and the re-kindle. Donbraska said 33 firefighters helped combat the fire during the day on Tuesday, and approximately 22 responded to the early morning call. 

The re-kindle was likely do to a burning cinder in a location the firefighters couldn’t access during the initial firefighting efforts. 

“There was something hiding somewhere and it started back up again,” Donbraska said. “It does happen. A lot of it is due to insulation. Insulation is great and it helps hold fires back, but it also can, at some point, contain it and you don’t know it’s there.”

The Scottsbluff Fire Department responded to both calls with their ladder truck – the second and third time the apparatus has been needed in Torrington this calendar year, the other being the Roy’s Cold Storage fire. 

During the Torrington City Council meeting Tuesday night prior to the re-kindle, Councilman and Goshen County Fire Warden Bill Law, as well as former TVFD chief Dennis Estes, said the ladder truck allowed the firefighters to access the fire and vent the roofs of the buildings more safely and quickly. 

“People think it’s for the higher buildings, but it’s not,” Law said. “When you put your firefighters over the fire, and with some of the new home constructions, you’re losing the integrity of the buildings earlier. It’s a safety thing.”

Mayor Randy Adams asked Estes to put together some figures on what it would cost to add a ladder truck to the TVFD’s arsenal, and Estes said it is something the TVFD will likely be looking into sooner rather than later. 

“It’s an apparatus that I think is in our future,” Estes said. “It is so unsafe for us to be on that roof. We had guys in full air packs, 20 to 30 feet in the air on ladders, carrying ladders and chainsaws up those ladders. They’re climbing on a roof that might be compromised. 

“When that ladder truck gets here, they get there, they step off the ladder truck, they cut their hole and they get back on. It’s a foot away. We have to scamper ladders and lift tools. 

“I know it’s a big spend, but it’s worth it to keep one person from going through a roof.”

Donbraska and Estes both praised the responding firefighter for their efforts in combating the fire. 

“We took care of everything we possibly could,” Donbraska said. “We put out the fire and everybody performed well. We worked well with Lingle and Scottsbluff.”

“Your fire department did over-the-top excellent today,” Estes said. “You have a top-notch fire department.”