Sitting side-by-side parked just off U.S. Highway 40, Ed Camilletti and his father, Frank, did their best to process the morning’s events and watched as members of Steamboat Springs Fire Rescue cleaned up hot spots.

“My son (Ruddy) noticed it 7:30ish, or somewhere around that time,” said Ed Camilletti of the fire. “He came over to check on his daughter’s 4-H lambs, and the barn was already (on fire). He couldn’t get in, and he couldn’t get them out.”

The family dialed 911.

Steamboat Fire Rescue received that call at 7:26 a.m., according to Joe Oakland, deputy fire chief, who said he was first to arrive on scene at 7:40 a.m.

“When I got on scene, I was the first one here. It was fully involved, and there was nothing left to save,” Oakland said. “We immediately moved into a defensive operation to make sure that nothing except for the barn was lost. There were no lives at stake or at risk, and we just contained the fire to the barn itself.”

Oakland said the priority was protecting nearby outbuildings, as well as a house that was close to the fire but never in any real danger. He said tanker trucks provided water to contain the blaze and then returned to Steamboat Springs where firefighters used pressurized hydrants to refill the tankers.

“There’s no fire hydrants out here,” Oakland said. “There is a water tank with a dry hydrant (a non-pressurized pipe system installed in a water source allowing firefighters to draw water for fire suppression by using a fire engine’s pump) connected to the Milner neighborhood out here. That tank was not working, and we were unable to get water out of that, but it didn’t hamper anything that we were doing and it didn’t impact our response in any way.”

Oakland said 10 members of Steamboat Fire Rescue responded and two investigators arrived on the scene later. He said cause of the fire is undetermined.

Ed Camilletti, a fourth-generation Routt County rancher, said that the fire department arrived at the scene as quickly as it could. He said by the time his son realized the barn was on fire all they could do was open a door and make the call to the fire department. He said both lambs, which had been brought to the ranch Sunday as part of his granddaughter’s 4-H project, were lost in the fire.

“They got here as quickly as they could,” Ed Camilletti said of the fire department. “You know, it’s a big old barn and lots of dry wood.”

Albert and Minnie Camilletti purchased the land 1938, and Frank Camilletti believes they built the barn in 1950 or 1951.

“Grandma and grandpa bought this place in 1938, and then they were up the draw, up there before with my great-grandpa, his (Frank’s) grandfather,” Ed Camilletti said.

The family said the barn was filled with all kinds of tack including saddles and harnesses. By the time Ed Camilletti arrived, he said the second floor was collapsing and any hope to rescue the lambs or pulling out tack and equipment was lost.

“We threw the door open, but there was nothing we could do,” Ed Camilletti said.

This is the second building fire Steamboat Fire Rescue has responded to this week and follows a significant fire in Hayden a couple weeks ago. On April 18 a fire destroyed a home 12 miles south of Hayden, and last Sunday a fire destroyed a home on Routt County Road 44.  

Oakland said he expects the scene of the fire to smolder and have smoke around it over the next couple days, and there is no need to call the fire department. The property owners will be keeping an eye on the scene and will reach out if needed.

“Some of it you can’t replace,” Ed Camilletti said. “But another saddle will fit your butt. It’s just hard right now to process how much stuff we had in there.”