The new year kicked off over a month ago, but Mark Lampert is just now getting back to the office.
The president of Ann Lampert Realty was out to dinner Jan. 2 in the Denver Tech Center when a neighbor texted that his office building appeared to be on fire.
“Coming down [Interstate] 225 and Iliff, I could start to see the glow. … And as I got closer, I could see the flames, and it was just unbelievable,” he said.
The 72-year-old raced over to his office at 420 S. Forest St. in Denver’s Hilltop neighborhood and was greeted by a raging inferno. A fire truck was operating in front of the property, a crane was shooting water over his building and into the blaze behind it.
Earlier that evening, authorities allege, 37-year-old Tony Becerra set fire to the 283-unit apartment complex being developed by Texas-based Embrey Partners at 5377 Leetsdale Drive. It was the city’s worst blaze in decades, according to a Denver Fire Department division chief.
“The pictures, they don’t give you the depth of what this is, destruction-wise,” Lampert said.
His 1,800-square-foot building backed up to the destroyed apartment complex. The fire knocked out power for weeks, caused smoke damage inside and melted caulking around some of its windows. There’s a clear line in the backyard where the blaze was stopped by a wall of water from Denver firefighters.
Last week, Lampert finally welcomed his staff back to the office.
For a time, he had to collect rent from his tenants in the building’s driveway. The Sherwin Williams paint store on the corner of Leetsdale and Forest, just two doors down, had its sign charred by the fire and was still selling paint despite not having electricity, he said.
“It was a little interesting to start the year,” Lampert quipped.
His cleanup process involved ozone machines and air purifiers to get rid of the smoke damage, generators to power the building and space heaters to keep it warm inside. All the wires to the machines looked like “spaghetti,” Lampert said. The total cost of the damage is still being ironed out, but it’s estimated between $40,000 and $50,000, he said.
Those costs, though, are a fraction of what Lampert’s neighbor is facing.
Directly next door to the real estate office is Kohelet, a synagogue. Ed Davidson, former president of the 60-person congregation, said the temple is staring down hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of needed repairs and remediation. It will take six to eight months for the building to be habitable again.
“We’re the only ones still affected by this,” said Davidson, 71.
The entire back wall of the synagogue was burned by the fire, leaving holes and compromising its structural integrity. Its electrical meter melted, and firefighters had to take out sections of the wall and ceiling to ensure the fire hadn’t spread there. The synagogue had previously filed an insurance claim about hail damage to its roof, complicating the fire claim process.
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The building will need a new back wall and complete electrical rewiring, as well as work to address the strong smoke odor and damage inside. The congregation has moved to another synagogue, Temple Emanuel, in the meantime.
Despite the hardship, Davidson and Lampert, two Denver natives and George Washington High School graduates, see a silver lining. The wind on the night of the fire was blowing west to east, away from their buildings.
“I think myself and as a congregation, we’re grateful because it could have been so much worse,” Davidson said.
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