House burns near Milliken

An old house on the outskirts of Milliken went up in flames Wednesday night, but it didn't amount to a big property loss.

The owner had already given the old farmhouse, located about a mile east of Milliken on Colo. 60, to the Milliken Fire Department for training, and the department was planning to burn it anyway.

Because the fire started in an abandoned house, where no utilities or electrical power were operating, and possibly because it was Halloween night, the fire investigators have not ruled out arson in the case. They plan to return to the site this weekend to check for causes of the blaze.

"We arrived and saw the house in flames, and so we just protected the area and let it burn," said Milliken Captain Kelvin Knaub. "We made sure the fire didn't spread to the cornfield nearby or anywhere else."

It was a two-story, wood-and-brick house that had been abandoned for years.