No Injuries in Early Morning Fire At "Uninhabitable" House

LITTLETON, CO – Investigators are looking into the cause of an early-morning house fire in Littleton of a structure that had been cited for multiple code violations and was deemed "uninhabitable" by the city. No injuries were reported in the fire.

South Metro Fire Rescue responded to the fire at 6:15 a.m. this morning at 7874 South Windermere Circle. The home was significantly damaged, a press release said. SMFR marshals and Littleton Police detectives are conducting the investigation into the cause of the fire.

The City of Littletonreleased a timeline of the various code violations that had been reported for the property:

• In May of 2018, code enforcement officers obtained a right-of-entry search warrant from a municipal judge to check the current condition of the home and inspected. The home was determined to be "uninhabitable" and an order was issued to bring it to a "state of good repair," the city said.
• The property owner "was initially unresponsive" but eventually the city got ahold of the owners and granted extensions to make corrections to the property. The owner failed to make the corrections and in November of 2018, a final notice and order to demolish was issued, the city said.
• The property owner appealed the order to the Building Board of Appeals. A series of delays and continuances dragged out the hearing from Dec. 19 until it was rescheduled for Mar. 20.

"The Building Board of Appeals will be advised by its attorney at that meeting on how to proceed in light of the fire," a press release from the city said.