Arson suspected in Mt. Crested Butte fire

Authorities offering $5,000 reward

A luxury residence in the Prospect subdivision of Mt. Crested Butte was decimatedd by a fire Sunday evening. No one was injured during the incident. Authorities believe the fire was the result of arson, and are offering a $5,000 reward for useful information leading to an arrest. 

According to the Mt. Crested Butte police, firefighters and emergency medical services responded to a house fire in progress at 5:52 p.m. on December 7. The property is a residential luxury home in the Prospect subdivision at 103 Bear Scratch. The home has been on the real estate market for at least five months, with a current listing price of $6,295,000.
A press release from the police states Mt. Crested Butte officers responded shortly after the page, “and found the home engulfed in flames.”
Fire chief Ric Ems could not be contacted at press time, and the police did not provide further information about the evening response.
Once the flames were out, an investigation into the cause of the fire began. According to the press release, “Two teams from the Colorado Bureau of Investigation [CBI] arrived on Monday, December 8 to investigate the cause of the fire, which has been determined as arson.”
The six-bedroom, 7,400 square-foot home was gutted by the fire. Mt. Crested Butte community development director Bill Racek says the structure is still standing, but “the damage is significant enough I think they’ll just tear it down.”
By town fire code, every property in the Prospect subdivision must have a built-in sprinkler system. The impetus for the rule was to buffer against potentially delayed response times due to the distance between the nearest fire station and the development.
Even though the home had a sprinkler system, Racek says, the damage is not out of the question. “It did have a 13-D system. It’s a residential-style system. Typically people presume that if something has a sprinkler system it’s the same as what you seen in a commercial building. But a residential sprinkler system is a lot less effective than a commercial system,” Racek says.
Real estate agent Cathy Benson says the home was insured and the owner, Andy Lavigne, would like to rebuild it. “I just talked to him… I think he’s incredibly saddened that someone would set fire to a home in Crested Butte. He doesn’t understand what would provoke someone to do that, or who could be that desperate. It’s not a part of the community he loves.”
Benson Sothebys International Realty has had the property listed for about five months, Benson says, but it was offered by another real estate agent prior to that time. Benson says Lavigne had a great revenue stream coming in from winter vacation rentals. “It certainly puts a damper on the beginning of winter,” she says.
A media contact at CBI could not be reached before press time regarding the investigation.
According to the CBI Major Crimes Division website, “The CBI offers assistance to law enforcement agencies throughout the state in fire investigation techniques. Determining the origin of the fire and the specific cause is essential to Arson Investigation. This assistance includes providing a certified fire investigator to assist with scene examination, scene reconstruction, burn pattern analysis, interviews, photo documentation, and evidence collection. The determination of the origin and cause of a fire will be followed up with expert courtroom testimony. An arson canine (Erin) is available to assist the investigator in detection of residues left by flammable liquids.”
Mt. Crested Butte police assistant Julia Shirk says CBI is offering a $5,000 reward for information or tips leading to the arrest and conviction of any suspects in the case.
For information about the reward, contact CBI’s arson hotline at 1-877-89-ARSON or call the Mt. Crested Butte police at 349-6516.