A car slammed into a single-wide mobile home in Aurora just after 4 a.m. Thursday, igniting a fire that tore through both the trailer and the vehicle before firefighters could contain it. One person was treated and taken to a hospital with minor injuries, while crews worked to stop the flames from spreading to neighboring homes.
The fire broke out in the 15000 block of East Colfax Avenue, according to CBS News, which reported that the crash itself set the car ablaze and the flames then spread into the mobile home. Aurora Fire Rescue crews focused on keeping the blaze contained to the two structures involved rather than letting it jump to nearby homes in the area.
No One Was Inside When Flames Broke Out
Firefighters said no one was inside the mobile home at the time of the crash, according to the same report. Investigators later determined that the fire's cause was accidental, though the outlet's reporting does not specify how the vehicle ended up leaving the roadway or who was behind the wheel.
This is not the first time a mobile home in that stretch of East Colfax Avenue has gone up in flames this year. On Aug. 28, Aurora Fire Rescue responded to reports of two mobile homes on fire in the same 15000 block, according to 5280Fire. That blaze caused extensive damage to one home and moderate damage to an adjacent one, though no one was hurt, and the outlet reported that the homes involved were abandoned and that the cause was still under investigation at the time. Aurora Fire Rescue posted on X that firefighters and Aurora police responded to that well-involved fire near East Colfax Avenue and North Helena Street and had water on the flames with the situation under control.
A Pattern of Cars Crashing Into Homes
Thursday's crash adds to a string of vehicle-into-home incidents that have rattled Aurora residents over the past year, though CBS News' reporting does not establish any direct connection between the East Colfax Avenue crash and a separate trouble spot along Peoria Street near Alaska Avenue. Residents there told the station that at least five cars have crashed into homes in the last year alone, on a stretch described as a four-lane major arterial with a posted speed limit of 35 mph.
One of those residents, Daniel Gelamichael, said cars have crashed into his property three times. He eventually spent $30,000 installing a reinforced concrete barrier wall around his home after the repeated collisions. Aurora city staff said they would continue evaluating recent crash data to determine whether engineering or safety measures were warranted along the corridor.
Mobile Homes Have Proven Difficult to Fight Fires In
Fires in Aurora's mobile home communities have posed their own challenges for firefighters beyond the East Colfax Avenue incidents. In one separate case, crews had a mobile home blaze under control within 20 minutes after determining the fire had started on the stove, the station reported. That incident is unrelated to Thursday's crash, but it underscores how quickly fire can take hold in the tightly built structures common to Aurora's manufactured-home neighborhoods.
