After a house fire in Mountain View, the recovery is long: dressing changes, missed paychecks, follow-up surgery, and a stack of bills. We help Mountain View households figure out who may be responsible for a burn and what it has cost, from our office in Denver.
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A space heater that overheated during the night, a bedroom full of smoke, a burn across your arm or your child’s leg: if something like that happened in your Mountain View home, you’re likely sorting through a dozen worries at once, including whether now is the moment to reach out to a Mountain View burn injury lawyer.
If you’d prefer to talk, CGH Injury Lawyers is available at (303) 209-9395. If writing is easier, send a few lines about the fire through our contact page.
The content on this page is provided for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Reading this page does not create an attorney-client relationship. Laws vary by jurisdiction and change frequently. Always consult a licensed attorney for advice specific to your situation.
Burn injury claims in Colorado turn on where and how the burn happened.
The National Library of Medicine’s MedlinePlus site lists faulty space heaters and furnaces among the causes of burns. When the danger was part of the property itself, like a furnace the owner let go or outlets that sparked for months, Colorado’s Premises Liability Act applies to the person legally responsible for that property’s condition (C.R.S. 13-21-115). What that person owed you depends on your status on the property, the same test used in any premises liability case in Mountain View.
If the heater itself was built wrong, the company behind it may be responsible whether you rent or own your home. A Colorado product liability action can rest on more than one legal theory, including negligence and strict liability (C.R.S. 13-21-401(2)), and a strict liability claim focuses on the heater: whether it had a defect and whether that defect is what burned you.
Workers’ compensation may pay benefits for a job burn, and it is generally the only claim against your employer under C.R.S. 8-41-102. A manufacturer whose torch failed, or a property owner who isn’t your employer, is a different story. Someone outside your employer who caused the burn can face a separate claim for losses beyond what workers’ compensation provides (C.R.S. 8-41-203).
MedlinePlus lists car accidents among the causes of burns. If another driver’s negligence caused the collision, your burn can be part of a car accident claim in Mountain View against that driver, and a longer filing period can apply to it.
A Mountain View burn claim draws on Colorado rules about property owners, filing deadlines, shared blame, and damages.
The Premises Liability Act ties your rights to the reason you were on the property. It puts each person on someone else’s land in one of three categories: trespasser, licensee, or invitee. The statute’s invitee is a person there to do business both parties have an interest in, or a person who came because the owner made clear the public was welcome.
Invitees get the most protection. An invitee can recover when the owner unreasonably failed to take reasonable care against a danger the owner knew of, or should have known of.
A licensee faces a harder test. The Act counts a social guest as a licensee, and a licensee can generally recover only for dangers the owner actually knew about (C.R.S. 13-21-115(4)(b)).
Under C.R.S. 13-21-115(4)(c)(II), actual knowledge is also required for an invitee on land classified for property tax purposes as agricultural or vacant. A judge, looking at the facts, decides which category fits you.
A negligence claim over a home’s condition is a tort claim, and tort claims generally have two years in Colorado under C.R.S. 13-80-102(1)(a). The same two years generally apply to a strict liability claim against a heater’s maker (C.R.S. 13-80-102(1)(b)).
In a collision case, tort claims arising out of the use or operation of a motor vehicle generally have three years (C.R.S. 13-80-101(1)(n)). That longer period generally doesn’t carry over to a strict liability claim about a defective part of the vehicle, which keeps the two-year limit (C.R.S. 13-80-101(1)(n)(II)).
Those periods generally begin running on the date you knew, or reasonably should have known, about both the burn and its cause (C.R.S. 13-80-108(1)).
A much shorter step applies to government defendants. When the responsible party may be a public entity or one of its employees on the job, Colorado’s rule is that written notice must be filed within 182 days after you discover the injury, even if you don’t yet know every element of the claim. Missing that notice forever bars the claim (C.R.S. 24-10-109(1)).
Separate rules can also change how a deadline runs for a child. Because so much turns on the facts, ask a lawyer to confirm your deadline early.
Under Colorado’s comparative negligence statute (C.R.S. 13-21-111), a negligence claim survives as long as your share of the fault stays below the share of the party you’re pursuing. The court then reduces your damages by your percentage. When your share is equal to theirs or greater, the defendant wins and you recover nothing.
Picture a jury deciding you were 30 percent at fault for setting a heater near a blanket and a landlord 70 percent at fault for wiring that overheated. Your damages would drop by 30 percent. That’s one reason to answer an adjuster’s questions about the night of the fire with care.
Colorado caps non-economic damages in an injury case for claims arising on or after January 1, 2025, at $1.5 million. Pain and suffering falls in that category.
Medical malpractice and wrongful death claims follow different rules. Starting January 1, 2028, the $1.5 million limit is adjusted for inflation.
The noneconomic limit applies to only some damages. Your medical costs and lost income aren’t part of it (C.R.S. 13-21-102.5(3)). Under C.R.S. 13-21-102.5(5), it also doesn’t limit compensatory damages for physical impairment or disfigurement, which may apply to a hand that no longer closes the way it did.
The county and the court
Jefferson County’s website lists Mountain View among its cities and towns. The county is part of the 1st Judicial District, which the Colorado Judicial Branch says includes Jefferson and Gilpin counties.
The Judicial Branch lists the Jefferson Combined Court at 100 Jefferson County Parkway, Golden, CO 80401. Where a lawsuit is filed depends on the facts, including who the parties are.
Trauma care
The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment keeps a list of designated trauma facilities. No facility on that list is located in Mountain View.
The list includes Denver Health Medical Center, 777 Bannock Street in Denver, as a Level I trauma center, and St. Anthony Hospital, 11600 West 2nd Place in Lakewood, also at Level I. Ask for copies of your emergency and discharge records wherever you were seen.
Fire protection
West Metro Fire Rescue, formally the West Metro Fire Protection District, protects Mountain View. Its 2025 Standard of Cover describes a district of about 108 square miles within Jefferson and Douglas counties that takes in the cities of Lakewood and Wheat Ridge and the towns of Morrison, Edgewater, Mountain View and Lakeside.
If West Metro crews came to your fire, their reports may help show how it began. The district’s open records request page asks requesters to allow up to three working business days for processing.
Our office
You’ll find us in Denver at 2701 Lawrence St., Suite 201.
Depth, size, location on the body and the effect on your work all change what a case is worth, so we don’t publish burn settlement figures.
If the other side argues the fire was your fault, we meet that with evidence: expert testimony, maintenance records and fire origin analysis.
A first offer can reflect only the hospital bill in front of you. Graft revisions, scar treatment, therapy and lost earning ability can come years later. Burn surgeons, vocational experts and medical economists help us build a Life Care Plan that documents those costs.
When the facts or the law don’t support a claim, you’ll hear that from us directly.
Managing Partner Kevin Cheney is a member of the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA). Whether a case settles or goes to a jury, CGH prepares each case as if it will be tried. CGH Injury Lawyers, formerly Cheney Galluzzi & Howard, was founded in Denver in 2016.
Our Spanish-language line is (303) 835-9177.
Once you’re safe and being treated, a few practical steps help preserve what a claim may need.
MedlinePlus warns: “The most serious burns can be painless.” Call 911 in an emergency.
Keep the heater, its cord, the power strip and any packaging or manual. Don’t send it back to the store or throw it away.
Capture the outlet, scorch marks, the heater’s label and model number, and your injuries at each stage of healing.
If you rent, tell your landlord or property manager in writing about the fire and any earlier problems with heat or wiring.
Before you give a recorded statement to an insurance company, you can ask to talk with a lawyer first. We’re at (303) 209-9395.
Save bills, receipts for bandages and medicine, notes on missed work and a short daily record of pain, sleep and what you can’t do.
The damages available depend on the facts of each case. Knowing the categories helps you see whether an offer leaves something out.
Scarring may be compensated as disfigurement, and C.R.S. 13-21-102.5(5) keeps the noneconomic limit from restricting compensatory damages for physical impairment or disfigurement.
A claim against a public entity is subject to its own maximum recovery amounts. The Colorado Secretary of State recalculates those maximums every fourth year under C.R.S. 24-10-114.
An adjuster may raise positions like these after a house fire.
An adjuster may argue the heater sat too close to bedding or ran on an extension cord. In a negligence claim, your part of the blame lowers the award by that percentage, and it ends the claim only at a share equal to or above the other side’s. We test that argument against the physical evidence.
A company defending a homeowner may argue you were a licensee who must prove actual knowledge of the hazard. The broader invitee standard also reaches hazards the owner should have known of. Your category is the court’s call, based on what happened and why you were there.
An early payment can be tied to the bills you have now. A Life Care Plan lays out the care still to come.
Payment can come from one source or several, depending on how the burn happened.
A space heater burn at home is generally a tort claim. Two years is the general period for that kind of claim under C.R.S. 13-80-102(1)(a), counted from when you knew or reasonably should have known of the burn and its cause (C.R.S. 13-80-108(1)). For a claim involving a public entity or one of its employees on the job, the first deadline is much shorter.
Written notice must be filed within 182 days after you discover the injury, and missing it forever bars the claim (C.R.S. 24-10-109(1)). Please have a lawyer confirm the deadline that applies to you.
Mountain View sits in Jefferson County, and Jefferson County belongs to the 1st Judicial District. Where a lawsuit is filed depends on the facts. For Jefferson County, the Colorado Judicial Branch lists the Jefferson Combined Court at 100 Jefferson County Parkway in Golden.
Colorado’s $1.5 million limit covers noneconomic damages, such as pain and suffering, for claims arising on or after January 1, 2025. Medical malpractice and wrongful death claims are handled under different rules (C.R.S. 13-21-102.5). Scarring may be compensated as disfigurement, and C.R.S. 13-21-102.5(5) keeps the limit from applying to compensatory damages for physical impairment or disfigurement.
Medical costs and lost income are economic losses, outside the $1.5 million limit as well. Claims against a government body have their own maximum amounts (C.R.S. 24-10-114).
You may still have a claim. As long as your fault is smaller than the fault of the party you’re pursuing, Colorado allows recovery, with your damages reduced by your percentage (C.R.S. 13-21-111). A share equal to or greater than theirs bars recovery.
Possibly. Colorado’s premises statute reaches a person legally responsible for the condition of real property, which can include a landlord (C.R.S. 13-21-115). Your status on the property is for the court to decide from the facts.
If you were an invitee, the landlord can generally be responsible for dangers it knew about or should have known about. If you were a licensee, the landlord’s actual knowledge of the danger is generally required. The appliance’s manufacturer may also share responsibility.
No. Our office is at 2701 Lawrence St., Suite 201, Denver, CO 80205. Call (303) 209-9395 whenever you’re ready.
It depends on the facts. A social guest is generally treated as a licensee, and in that case your friend’s actual knowledge of the danger generally has to be shown (C.R.S. 13-21-115(4)(b)).
The court decides your status. If the grill itself was defective, a product claim against its maker may also be possible.
The answer turns on the cause of the burn. For a burn on the job, workers’ compensation may pay benefits. For a fire at a rental or business, the landlord’s or owner’s liability insurance may respond.
After a collision, the other driver’s liability coverage is a starting point, and your own uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage may be involved. Keep every bill and receipt so the full cost is documented, and call us to talk through which sources may apply.
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It's More Than Money.
Call (303) 209-9395, or use the contact page to walk us through the fire. We’ll tell you how Colorado law may fit your situation and what we honestly think.
Learn more on our Mountain View personal injury lawyers page.
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