Steamboat Pilot & Today

Steamboat Springs — A fire damaged a building at a local concrete plant Wednesday stopping operations, but plant employees said they hope to have things running again by next week.

The Steamboat Springs Fire Department responded to a call at about 7 a.m. Wednesday to the Trans Colorado Concrete plant, located behind Clark's Market in Steamboat Springs, Assistant Fire Chief Bob Struble said.

The fire damaged much of the second floor of the plant, but no one was hurt, Struble said.

It did not damage the conveyor belt at the plant.

"Most of the structure is made of steel supports," Struble said, adding that it is hard to estimate the extent of the damage.

"They'll have to get an engineer in to look at it to see if the heat damaged the supports," he said.

The fire was out 20 minutes after the firefighters arrived, and by 9:15 a.m., the building was secure, Struble said.

He suspected the boiler in the structure was the cause of the fire, but that is still under investigation. The fire department has worked on 18 structure fires this year, which is about average, Struble said.

Ken Vodehnal, superintendent at the plant, said he isn't sure when the building will be repaired and functional. However, a portable concrete maker will be brought to the plant on Friday so the company can still sell concrete. Vodehnal hopes to have things running smoothly by Monday.

"It will be a little tougher because (the portable concrete mixer) is not heated," he said.

Though winter is usually a slow time for concrete plants, business has been steady through the cold weather, Vodehnal said.

Trans makes about 20,000 cubic yards of concrete a year. If the company isn't able to have business as usual, the Lafarge plant in the south Yampa Valley will be the sole concrete plant in the area.

"It could cause problems. Lafarge is way on the other side of town," Fred Sandelien said.

Sandelien works for Native Excavating of Steamboat Springs. The company sent him to Trans Colorado Concrete to help clean up after the blaze. Sandelien said because of its in-town location, it is important the concrete plant gets up and running so people who use the plant won't have to go out of their way to get concrete.