The Denver Fire Department responded to Empower Field at Mile High at about 2:15 p.m. MDT, Capt. Greg Pixley told The Denver Post. The fire was extinguished approximately 30 minutes later as firefighters and the stadium’s sprinkler system brought the blaze under control.
“This fire burned very hot. We’re lucky the sprinkler system started to hold the fire in check,” Pixley told the newspaper. “This was a significant fire.”
Stadium officials said in a statement on Twitter that the fire occurred in a construction zone near the East Club Lounge. Pixley said the fire ignited on the fourth level of the stadium and spread to the third-level seats, KDVR-TV reported. Smoke interrupted an event on the second floor that had about 100 people in attendance, but there are no reports of injuries, the television station reported.
Pixley said the sprinkler system was activated in the indoor seating area, but there was no sprinkler system over the exposed stadium seats, according to the Post.
That exposed the stadium’s plastic seats to the blaze.
“This type of plastic that the seats are composed of burns with not only significant ferocity, very large flames, but also produces a tremendous amount of black smoke,” Pixley told reporters.
Six rows of seats in two sections near the suites were destroyed, KCNC-TV reported.
