Early morning fire destroys Turtle Beach garage

Firefighters from Marquette, Aurora and Central City were called out early Thursday morning to battle a garage fire in the Turtle Beach community in northern Hamilton County along the Platte River.

Aurora Assistant Fire Chief Jeff Schneider says both Aurora and Marquette were paged out at about 2:45 Thursday morning and a mutual aid call was issued to Central City for manpower and water.

Schneider said the detached garage located about 20 yards from the house at 704 Turtle Beach Road was fully engulfed in flames when fire crews arrived and firefighters were on scene about two and a half hours to keep the fire from spreading to the house and other nearby structures.

“At that point all we could do was dump lots of water on it,” Schneider said, noting that of concern was a large propane tank sitting next to the garage.

However, Schneider said the tank's pop off value did blow releasing the gas, thus avoiding a dangerous explosion.

Turtle Beach neighbor Rich Nelson says he and his wife were awakened at 3 a.m. by explosions coming from the blaze, and could see flames shooting up from their home which is across the lake from the fire. Nelson said the home is owned by Jack Lyons, who was home at the time according to Schneider.

Schneider said while the garage was a total loss, the only damage to the nearby house appeared to be melted vinyl siding.