About a month before Christmas, on November 23, 1983, at 12:22 a.m., two Denver policemen discovered fire and smoke at the University Hills Mall on Colorado Boulevard in Denver. After all was said and done, the fire took five hours to bring under control, and it was the first five-alarm fire in the 100-year history of the Denver Fire Department. Damage to the mall was estimated at that time at $15 million. Close to 150 firemen fought the blaze, as well as 60 police support personnel. Luckily, only two firemen received minor injuries, and there were no deaths. There were 25 firefighting vehicles, and 10 support and supply vehicles used to suppress the fire.
Many of you may remember the University Hills Mall. Various stores were part of the mall, such as May D&F, Fashion Bar, Hatch’s Books, and everyone’s favorite, Orange Julius! The mall was opened in August 1951, as an open air shopping center, and became enclosed in 1976. At the time of the fire, there were 48 stores within the mall, totaling over 330,000 square feet.
As was reported in the Denver Post (November 24, 1983), the fire spread so fast because of the open spaces above the false ceilings, and there were no fire stops or sprinklers above those ceilings. It was reported to have started near the Yarbro Drugs store, where the entire roof later collapsed. Eleven businesses were completely destroyed, eight to ten stores had heavy smoke and water damage, and six stores, including May D&F, Fashion Bar, and Dave Cook Sporting Goods, had heavy smoke damage only. Most of the stores were stocked for the Christmas shopping season and had considerable losses, though many owners at the time planned to be back in business soon after the blaze.
The fire was difficult to fight due to the cold temperature, which had dropped to 8 degrees. Water froze on the firefighters’ coats, and the firefighters slipped and fell on the icy pavement. At 5:53 a.m., the fire was brought under control, though it took half of the city’s fire trucks to do so.
Stories broadcast on the local news had somewhat exaggerated the damage to the mall. Many people thought the whole mall had burned down and was destroyed. While many stores were heavily damaged, some were up and running soon after the fire.
The University Hills Mall is long gone, having been replaced by a large King Soopers grocery store and many big box stores. Many malls have been replaced by new shopping concepts, such as the Belcaro shopping area, or by big box, stand alone stores.
In March of 1984, Chubb and Sons Inc., the insurance carrier for some of the mall’s stores, filed a lawsuit against the mall and Yarbro Drugs, where the fire was believed to have started. The insurance company claimed that the mall was negligent because they should have known about hazardous electrical wiring, which may have contributed to the fire starting. “Yarbro Drugs allowed the ‘improper and excessive use of electrical extension cords within its leased premises...thereby creating a risk of fire,’ the lawsuit said,” (Rocky Mountain News, March 16, 1984).
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Comments
My dad fought that fire. He
My dad fought that fire. He was the Enginer at Station 15
at 12th and Clayton.
It was a very interesting
It was a very interesting night for him I'm sure! I hope you got to hear a lot of stories about the fire.
I'm trying to remember the
I'm trying to remember the name of the "mom-n-pop" ice cream shop that was there. I'd heard that they couldn't rebuild because they didn't have insurance.
Hi Kathy, email us at history
Hi Kathy, email us at history@denverlibrary.org and request that we look up the name of this store. I recall when I wrote the blog post, that there was a list of stored in the mall. We can have our research volunteers look it up.
Thanks!
I remember a shop in the
I remember a shop in the order of pier 1 named Hodels, I think. Possibly had a fountain(. Ice cream)
I am almost certain that
I am almost certain that Hodel's was a drug store........
Thanks for the article.......
Thanks for the article........my memory isn't what it used to be, but here goes.
The insurance company was looking for money everywhere. First they went after Denver Fire for "wrongful firefighting". When the center re-modeled, it was an extensive remodel so they should have had to extend each units fire walls separating each store all the way to the roof to keep a fire from running the "cock loft" all the way along the front stores in the space between the units walls and the roof. It wasn't done, but Denver Fire fought the fire as it should have been remodeled following those code requirements. Soooo, the insurance company then turned on the Denver Building Dept and their inspectors for not enforcing that code.
Don't think they got far with that lawsuit either.
Hi Patrick! This is really
Hi Patrick! This is really interesting and thank you for posting this. It gives a bit of behind the scenes information that was not known by many.
James
You are welcome.....There was
You are welcome.....There was another famous Denver Fire not far from U. Hills somewhere around early 50's? The restaurant at Wellshire golf course went up in fire big time......I remember it because I was about 3 YO at the time, and my parents had just moved into the U Hills neighborhood and the house on So Fairfax was brand new.
Eisenhower park? was a huge, fenced construction yard where the construction company for all those homes was storing all the lumber for those homes......
My family owned Molberg
My family owned Molberg Jewelery Store in the mall (still owns it across Colorado Blvd). My mom's dad, Leonard Molberg, ran the store in those days. At the time, we were living in southern Iowa in a small town. Believe it or not, we first learned about the fire on national news. We had a photo in the jewelry store of my grandfather with the store packed to the gills as people showed up for a post-fire sale. I worked in the store in the early 90s when I was a teenager for a bit in the later years of the mall.
My 3-year-old son is named after my grandfather (thus Leonard).
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