DENVER — On August 10, 2023, a fourplex on South Lincoln Street exploded, damaging half of the building.
The property is in the exact same state, surrounded by an emergency fence because the property owner wasn’t cooperating with city officials.
“At the 11/20 inspection it was determined that nothing had changed with the structure. The city has continued to try and make contact with the owner to determine a plan of action and timeline for this property, but the owner hasn’t been as responsive as the city would hope," this was a statement 9NEWS received from city officials back in December.
On January 19, nearly six months later, the property owner hired a demolition contractor and submitted a demolition permit application.
That application is now in the hands of the city, but when it could be approved and completed, could take a while.
"The city is reviewing that application for completeness and will issue the permit was everything is in order. There’s a number of different agencies that are required to sign off. Some of those agencies include public works, DOTI, wastewater landmark and forestry, but there’s also outside agencies like Denver water and the state," said Dennis Shults, deputy building official. "Once all of those agencies approve, then we can issue the permit. It could take several weeks and it depends basically on all of these agencies approving the application."
The exact timeline on when the demolition can happen is still up in the air. According to the state, there's potentially asbestos material, which that can delay the process.
"Ultimately this application will get all of the required approval, but agencies may have requirements that the applicant must meet before they give their approval," Shults said. "For example, wastewater will not sign off until all utilities and services have been shut off. If there's an established tree that is not diseased or decayed and located within the primary and side street setback areas of the zone lot, forestry will require it to be preserved. These types of situations could slow the permit issuance process, but once the requirements are met, the application can move forward and the permit will be issued."
Once the permit is issued by all agencies, the city said it can take a day or two to complete the demolition.
Back in August, Denver Fire Department said a natural gas explosion is the suspected cause of the blast that heavily damaged the fourplex in Denver. Here's the latest update 9NEWS received from Fire Capt. JD Chism:
"Unfortunately the cause of this explosion is still under investigation. As you can imagine an incident of this nature is pretty complex. I have not been given a timeline on when our fire investigation team expect to complete their investigation."
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