Firefighters contained the blaze on the western border of the course.
A fire that burned Sunday afternoon just west of CommonGround Golf Course in Aurora threatened to make a couple of years of planning and work go up in smoke, but the blaze stopped just short of the soon-to-open course.
The fire on the site of the former Lowry Air Force Base charred about 130 acres of land, but it burned itself out at the edge of the maintained grass on the fifth hole at CommondGround, which is owned by the Colorado Golf Association and Colorado Women’s Golf Association.
The fifth hole runs along the west side of the course, with native grass having come up to the edge of the par-4. The fire burned almost all of that native grass, but stopped in the rough bordering the hole.
The fire nearly reached the 5th fairway on the left.
“It looked like Mars out there (west of the course), but I think people will be amazed how quickly it will be flourishing,” said CGA executive director Ed Mate, who examined the area Monday morning. “This will help the ecosystem take off.”
CommonGround Golf Course is scheduled to open to the public on May 23. It’s on the site of the former Mira Vista Golf Course, which closed in September 2007. Since then, noted course architect Tom Doak and his team have constructed a totally new course at a cost of about $4.8 million.
Mate said he first received notification of the fire at about 4:15 p.m. Sunday, more than an hour after it started.
“My first thought is “˜Oh my goodness, it may damage the course,’ but I was relieved the more information I got,” he said.
Denver, Aurora and South Metro firefighters had the fire under control about an hour after it started in the cattails, and within two hours the blaze was out completely. As a precaution, CommonGround officials then turned on the sprinklers on the west side of the course to make sure no hot spots flared up.
The next concern was whether fire equipment had done any damage to the course while the blaze was being fought, but course officials said that didn’t turn out to be an issue.
Despite the golf course having been named CommonGround since last spring, news reports about the blaze almost universally still referred to it as Mira Vista.
Fire investigators indicated that arson was a possibility in the start of Sunday’s blaze.
