Denver bar fire leaves five dead, police suspect arson homicide
A Denver bar went up in flames Wednesday morning and firefighters raced to douse the fire which left four women and one man dead.
Five people were found dead at Fero’s Bar & Grill, Police Chief Robert White said.
UPDATE: Police have arrested three men who were robbing the bar and set the fire to cover their tracks. The deceased have also been identified – read those details here
photo Scott Davidson
Police think the blaze was set to cover up their slayings.
“There is just trauma, enough information to believe that we have a homicide that occurred here. They didn’t perish in the fire,” police Commander Ronald Saunier said.
The fire didn’t appear to be very large. No damage to the bar was visible from the street or aerial news coverage. Red stains that appeared to be blood were visible on the sidewalk in front of the bar. Some of the stains were in trails on the sidewalk and others appeared to have been where blood had pooled.
Just outside of downtown Denver, the bar attracts locals and travelers from nearby hotels.
One frequent patron Chris Brady told AP that the customers ranged from “semi-homeless-looking people” to patrons in suits and ties. He was at the bar for a regular poker game held Tuesdays and won $25 cash before leaving about 11 p.m.
“There was nobody random or crazy in there,” Brady said.
Brady said bar co-owner Young Fero, who cooks up beef bowls at a moment’s notice, usually would close the bar herself, and she bid him goodnight Tuesday as he paid his tab.
“She said, “Thank you sweetie, have a good night,'” Brady said. “I said, `You too.'”
No one answered the door at Young Fero’s home in Aurora. A sign on the door read, “Day sleeper, please don’t ring the doorbell! Thank you.” It was signed “The sleeper.”
Neighbor Mike Spinale described Fero as “really nice.”
“She didn’t speak much, but I know she owned a bar and she worked all the time,” Spinale said. “She told me she did everything herself.”
Danny Fero, who described himself as Young Fero’s ex-husband, said he went to the scene Wednesday and talked with police, but he wasn’t asked to identify any of the bodies. He said he did not know who might have been at the bar Wednesday morning.
“She always worked late and closed the bar,” he said.
He doesn’t know if she was one of the victims.
The victims haven’t been identified. Autopsies were expected to be completed later in the day.
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