A blaze that started early Tuesday morning destroyed 20 storage units at Firehouse Self Storage just south of Loveland, according to the Loveland Fire Rescue Authority.

Greg Ward, LFRA operations chief, told the Reporter-Herald that crews reported to the storage complex at 2600 S. Lincoln Ave. at 1:03 a.m., with a second alarm — a request for more crews to respond — at 1:22 a.m.

Loveland Fire and neighboring fire departments battled the fire for an hour before it was under control at 2:08 a.m.

Ward said the fire was contained to a building that holds 54 storage units. While 20 of those units were destroyed, the fire did not spread to any adjoining structures. Firehouse Self Storage encompasses several storage unit buildings, RV storage options, a home and several vintage firetrucks.

On scene Tuesday morning, firefighters — some of whom had responded to the fire nearly eight hours earlier — continued to douse hot spots found among the heaps of burned property pulled from the damaged storage units.

Damaged units were numbered in the 2200 “block” of the storage building.

Loveland Fire Lt. Bobby Bartlett said the fire likely started in unit 2243 and spread to neighboring units to the north and south, and also passed through the back wall to the west, spreading to the units on the other side of the building.

Bartlett said the 20 affected units stand between two fire walls, which prevented any further spread to the north and south.

Also on scene, Loveland Fire investigator Dan Engelhardt said he and the Larimer County Sheriff’s Office continue to investigate the origin and cause of the fire.

Engelhardt said a woman was on scene when the fire began late Monday or early Tuesday. He said he believed the woman was unharmed by the fire and that Sheriff’s Office deputies transported her to Fort Collins to question her.

He added that based on his investigation so far, residents to the east of Firehouse Self Storage saw smoke from the facility and drove over to check on the site. There, they met the woman who had been on scene, who didn’t have a working cellphone. She told those who arrived at Firehouse Self Storage to call 911 and report the fire.

Engelhardt said LFRA was unable to contact the owners or managers of Firehouse Self Storage until around 9 a.m.

He said crews passed the site’s locked gates using a special key at the electrically operated gate, but firefighters had no master key for the individual units. To access the inside of units, firefighters had to break locks or cut into the metal doors.

Managers arrived at Firehouse Self Storage around 9:30 a.m. to survey the damage and speak with firefighters. Those managers would not speak on the record, saying they preferred to allow a regional manager to make any official comments regarding the damaged units and what the company would do next. As of 4 p.m. Tuesday, the storage facility’s corporate offices had not commented.

The storage facility changed ownership in January 2018, according to Inside Self-Storage, a storage-based news provider. The article indicates that the Burton family, longtime owners of the property, sold it to California-based FolletUSA for $22.2 million.

Larimer County property records indicate two parcels holding the storage units belong to Razorback-Firehouse No. 1.

Bartlett said firefighters had to pull everything they could out of the units to hose it down and separate it from the structure; the overhaul took hours, lasting until around 8:30 a.m.

Burned furniture, bikes, motorcycles, engines, tools, toys, clothes and other debris was piled in front of the affected units Tuesday morning.

“It’s really too bad,” Bartlett said, motioning toward a stack of damaged photo albums.

He said the fire walls to the north and south of the 20 units worked well. Units on the other sides of those walls suffered no visible damage.

Plastic storage bins on the other side of the fire wall showed no signs of tainting or melting, despite being less than a foot away from a unit full of nearly unidentifiable, burned rubble.

Likewise, a ’70s model Oldsmobile Cutlass suffered melted and burned paint, while a Ford pickup carrying an ATV two units down showed no sign of a fire.

Ward said the second alarm called for support from seven Loveland apparatus including a ladder truck and a heavy-rescue vehicle, two engines from Poudre Fire Authority and an engine each from Berthoud Fire Protection District and Front Range Fire Rescue.

Ward said about 45 firefighters battled the blaze under nine chief officers, with a Thompson Valley EMS ambulance and Larimer County Sheriff’s Office deputies also on scene.

The LFRA Facebook post states that Poudre Fire Authority, Windsor-Severance Fire Rescue, LFRA Canyon Battalion volunteers and off-duty LFRA personnel continued to staff the Loveland-area fire district as on-duty crews fought the fire.

Hans Peter: 970-635-3630, hpeter@prairiemountainmedia.com.