Cooking Fat Vat Fire Averted In Boulder

BOULDER, CO -- A cooking fat conflagration was averted in Boulder when firefighters managed to extinguish a blaze at an oil recycling center before the flammable material caught fire.

At about 4:19 p.m. Mar. 29, Boulder county's 911 dispatchers got a call from the ClearEcos restaurant grease collection and oil pickup center in the 7200 block of Valtec Court.

The caller warned firefighters that there were thousands of gallons of cooking oil in the building, and the building was filling with smoke, a statement from the Boulder Sheriff's Office said.

When firefighters arrived, they found the insulation on the metal tanks containing used cooking was burning and they were able to extinguish the fire quickly. Emergency personnel from Rocky Mountain Fire Protection District, Louisville Fire Department, Lafayette Fire Department, Boulder Rural Fire Protection District, and Boulder County Sheriff's Office deputies responded, the sheriff's office said.

No other structures were threatened and no one was injured. Foul play is not suspected, the sheriff's office said.

Structure fire on Valtec Ct., near Arapahoe and N. 75th. First responders are on scene. Please avoid the area to allow first responders room to work. pic.twitter.com/ZHVVrWPntb
— BoulderCountySheriff (@BldrCOSheriff) March" class="redactor-linkify-object">https://twitter.com/BldrCOSher... 29, 2018

Image via Boulder County Sheriff's Office