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February 11, 2021
JEFFERSON COUNTY, COLORADO
A publication of
JeffcoTranscript.com
VOLUME 37 | ISSUE 31
Fire forces evacuations of homes, golf courses BY STEVE SMITH SSMITH@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
Frank DeAngelis stands in a shoot/don’t shoot room in the DeAngelis Center in Wheat Ridge.
PHOTO BY BOB WOOLEY
A high-tech tour of Jeffco’s DeAngelis Center Technology and training combine to keep schools safe BY BOB WOOLEY BWOOLEY@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
The alarm is jarring. It sounds like a high-pitched metallic banging put through an electronic synthesizer. It jangles your nerves and causes an almost physical reaction with every pulse. The voices follow. “ATTENTION! LOCK DOWN!… ATTENTION! LOCK DOWN! “ It repeats, as more audio components are added to the mix. “ATTENTION ALL UNITS! ATTENTION ALL UNITS! SHOTS FIRED! MULTIPLE PARTIES DOWN! SCHOOL IS IN LOCKDOWN!” It’s loud. Incredibly loud. Soon, screams and pleading of a terrified young girl fill your ears. “HELP! PLEASE DON’T LEAVE ME! HELP ME PLEASE! PLEASE! I DON’T WANT TO DIE HERE!” There are flashing strobes, and the
sound of gunshots ring out. It’s chaos. Hearing it, even 30 seconds of it when you know what is coming, is difficult to wrap your mind around. Add smoke filling the hallways to achieve complete sensory overload. This is just a small sample of what law enforcement agencies, school safety personnel, first responders and others encounter during training at what is perhaps the country’s premier facility for crisis response. In its short history, The DeAngelis Center for Community Safety has also played host to members of the Navy Seals, Air Marshals, ATF, Secret Service and the Colorado Bureau of Investigation… all free of charge. Frank DeAngelis knows more than anyone would ever want to know about school shootings. As Principal of Columbine High School on April 20, 1999, all eyes were fixed upon the horrific tragedy that took place there, and his response to it. There had been mass shootings in schools before. But none commanded more global attention than the massacre the world witnessed that day. In the aftermath of the shootings,
DeAngelis volunteered to step aside, but the District and community stood firmly behind him. He shepherded the school through years of healing and rebuilding, remaining principal there until his retirement in 2014. So, it came as no surprise, except to DeAngelis himself, that a shuttered Wheat Ridge elementary school, turned training center for crisis response and mass casualty events, would be named in his honor. Now, as a consultant and subject matter expert, he helps guide the state-of-the-art facility that bears his name. The Center, originally the brainchild of John McDonald, Executive Director, School Safety, for Jeffco Schools, had previously stood for 57 years as Martensen Elementary. “This school had been closed since 2011 and one day I was driving by and wondered if they’d let me confiscate an elementary school and turn it into a training center,” McDonald said. And sure enough, they did. The
INSIDE: VOICES: PAGE 12 | LIFE: PAGE 14 | CALENDAR: PAGE 11 | SPORTS: PAGE 20
NOT ALONE
Couples share the challenges of dating and relationships during the pandemic P14
SEE DEANGELIS, P5
High winds and dry grass led to evacuations in and around Bear Creek Park in Lakewood on Feb. 7. Fire investigators with West Metro Fire aren’t sure whether it was intentional, or accidental, but they say the wind-driven grass fire near Morrison Road and Bear Creek Boulevard which burned an estimated 535 acres has been ruled man-made. Anyone with information can contact West Metro Fire at 303-539-9531. The Morrison Road fire started before 2 p.m. and forced the evacuations of the nearby Fox Hollow Golf Course, the clubhouse at Homestead Golf Course and nearby homes. The zone extended from Morrison Road to Hampden Avenue and from C-470 to Kipling Street. An employee of a nearby ice rink said employees had to close the windows of the facility because of the smoke and described the scene as “apocalyptic.” Winds gusted as high as 45 mph at times. The National Weather Service posted a high-wind warning through 5 p.m. Feb. 7. The fire caused no reported injuries. Flames were as high as 40 feet in places. Mop-up operations and the removal of damaged cottonwood trees in the burn area continued Monday. Crews from the West Metro fire district as well as the Fairmount Protection District, Elk Creek Fire, Aurora, Arvada and Golden districts were on scene.