August 6, 2020
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JEFFERSON COUNTY, COLORADO
A publication of
GoldenTranscript.net
VOLUME 154 | ISSUE 35
Firefighters respond to blaze atop 16-story silo at Coors Fire did not impact brewery operations BY PAUL ALBANI-BURGIO PALBANIBURGIO@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
Firefighters spraying water onto the burning roof of a 16-story silo-like building at Coors Brewery in Golden. PAUL ALBANI-BURGIO
Firefighters responded to a fire in an unused silo-like building on the east side of the Coors Brewery in Golden Thursday morning. The fire started burning around 11: 30 a.m. with flames visible at the roof level of the 16-story structure, said Alan Fletcher, the chief of the Fairmount Fire Protection District. Fletcher said firefighters had to ascend stairways on the exterior of the structure to get water onto the fire, which was under control within about 90 minutes. “It took a little bit to get to the hot spots,” said Fletcher. “The whole 16-stories from top to bottom is empty so it wasn’t safe in any shape or form to be on that roof structure so we had to get above it.” Wood planks on top of the unused malt silo were the source of the flames, according to Golden Fire and
Rescue. No cause for the fire has been reported by Golden or Coors. There were no injuries reported and Fletcher said Coors staff had indicated that the brewery’s operations were not impacted. Fletcher described the roof as being “open almost like a deck” and said that while Coors will have to “do some cleanup which will cost money” he did not expect there to be any affect on the brewery beyond that as the structure is not used in current operations. A total of five agencies including Golden, Fairmount and West Metro responded to the fire. The firefighters also utilized a West Metro drone outfitted with a thermal camera. “That was cool to be able to use that to fly over and see the areas of heat on the roof that we were having a hard time getting to,” Fletcher said. The brewery, located at 311 10th Street, was founded by Adolph Coors in 1873, and has been a major employer, tourism draw and cultural cornerstone of the the city.
Lower positive case rate in Jeffco even as total cases rise Rising COVID cases attributed to travel, small gatherings BY PAUL ALBANI-BURGIO PALBANIBURGIO@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
While case and hospitalization numbers continue to rise, Jefferson County’s top public health official says there is some good news when it
comes to the county’s recent efforts to manage its recent uptick in COVID-19 cases. “Fortunately, our positivity rate is staying below 5%,” said Jefferson County Public Health Executive Director Mark B. Johnson. “That is sort of the goal that has been set and if we can keep that rate below 5% that essentially means that while we do see cases rising, we will see them fall again.” Johnson said the county’s
INSIDE: VOICES: PAGE 12 | LIFE: PAGE 14
DOES MORE TESTING MEAN MORE CASES? JCPH Executive Director Mark B. Johnson said COVID-19 testing is analogous to pregnancy testing in that the tests do not make a person pregnant but determine whether they are. Similarly, COVID-19 tests do not cause COVID-19 but rather identify cases in a specific population. “You are finding the cases that are already there and optimism is buoyed by recent increases in the number of COVID-19 tests being conducted in Jeffco. The county now regularly reaching its goal of
that’s what we want to know in public health is what is there so we can do something about controlling those that are positive,” Johnson said. However, Johnson said that a more important number than the overall number of positive cases is the percent of positive cases the county is seeing based on its testing. The county’s goal for that number is 5%.
conducting at least 880 tests a day. That is a major change from July, when the county had only reached 880 tests a day a handful of times since
the start of the pandemic— and none since late April. But while the future outlook SEE COVID, P3
WINDING UP
PERIODICAL
HS softball, boys golf and tennis get tentative approval P11