Dive Brief:

• Denver Fire Department investigators have asked the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) to help in efforts to determine what started a fire that ravaged an under-construction apartment complex Saturday night with flames visible from miles away.
• The Colorado Bureau of Investigation is also participating in the investigation of the fire in the small community of Glendale — which is surrounded by the city of Denver and gets fire protection from it, but is in a different county where city fire investigators do not have arrest powers.
• The fire burned so hot that cars parked in neighboring apartment complexes had metal and glass deformed, and it melted blinds in the windows of some apartments.

Dive Insight:

Denver Fire Department Division Chief Joseph Gonzales said the wood-frame construction burned like kindling. Officials have not offered any theory yet of what could have begun so intense a fire at 11 p.m. on  Saturday when no one was working. People in the neighboring apartments got out safely, and there were no reported injuries among them or firefighters.