The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office carried out a court-ordered eviction Friday afternoon on residents of a troubled Lakewood property that was thrust into the local spotlight after two weekend fires.

Police vehicles crowded the front of 8000 W. 10th Ave. Friday, providing a different image than the previous piles of trash and two RVs parked on the property earlier in the week. 

The eviction came after an array of people raised concerns at the Lakewood City Council meeting Monday about potential criminal activity and suspicious behavior at the property prior to, and after, the weekend fires.

The garage — marred by fire in the top corner — was deemed dangerous and uninhabitable Tuesday, meaning it’s illegal for people to be in the unit, but the City of Lakewood said the eviction was ordered by the property owner, not the city or police.

The brick home on the same property was also deemed dangerous and uninhabitable Friday, with officers clearing the building. That operation was unrelated to the eviction of people living in the garage.

Both the home and garage were illegally converted into multiple living units, according to the city.

“The City of Lakewood is actively addressing significant issues at 8000 W. 10th Ave., including further increasing directed enforcement at the property and in the surrounding area,” the Lakewood Police Department said in a social media post Thursday.

The eviction took place around 1 p.m. without incident, according to the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office.

The first fire began around 8:30 p.m. Saturday night in the back garage, according to a social media post by West Metro Fire Rescue. No one was injured during the fire and it was extinguished around 10 p.m. The brick home suffered some damage from the heat, the fire department said.

Residents said they heard an explosion behind the garage, in a nearby shed, before the fire began.

“The explosion completely rocked my house,” Lindsay Driver, a nearby resident, told The Denver Gazette Monday.

The second fire happened around a day later. Around 1:30 a.m. Monday, the fire department returned to the garage to extinguish another fire.

The cause of both fires is still under investigation, police said. A suspect was identified on suspicion of arson and is thought to be tied to a resident’s family member. They have not been arrested as of Friday.

Residents voiced their concerns to both the media and the City Council Monday, claiming that there were various incidents of open-air drug use, shootings and other crimes at the property between September and now — just a few feet from Jefferson County Open School.

“I’ve never been one to be a cop-caller, but I just can’t anymore. It’s constant,” another nearby resident told The Denver Gazette. The resident asked to remain anonymous, fearing for her safety. “There’re shotguns, there’re handguns.”

Between Jan. 1, 2024 and May 15, 2025, Jefferson County’s 911 call center received 79 calls for service to the address, according to Jeffcom 911. These calls included extra patrols, welfare checks and animal cruelty.

There was also a call to the address for a gunshot wound on April 24 and two reports of menacing on April 29.

“This is within 1,000 feet of a school. It’s exposing children to dangerous behavior,” Jonathan Hatch told the Lakewood City Council Monday evening. “There’s been a lot of thefts, a lot of vandalism and a lot of property damage in the neighborhood recently.”

The school has also felt the effects of the property, according to Ethan Webb, a freshman at Jefferson County Open School.

“The students speak a lot about it,” he told The Denver Gazette. “A lot of my female peers are scared to go out because it’s dangerous. Now that the media has been around this big explosion, (students) want to be around it and go visit it.”

A sex offender is also listed as living at the address, according to the sex offender registry. The offender was convicted of second-degree sexual assault in 1994. 

“They’re instilling fear in thousands of taxpaying citizens,” Hatch said. “If terrorizing elderly women and children in a family neighborhood next to a school isn’t enough to get arrested in Lakewood, I guess we would need a complete overhaul because I don’t know who’s going to protect us.”

The police department said it will arrest anyone trespassing at the building because it has been deemed dangerous and uninhabitable. The department will also be issuing a final notice to the property owner to “take responsibility to secure and clean up the property or face additional consequence,” according to the social media post.

The property owner was also provided notice that the property must be fenced immediately, and it must be cleaned up, restored or torn down, according to the city.

The Denver Gazette recently contacted the property owner, but he declined to comment on the incident. 

“We are committed to ensuring the safety of our community and will continue to take necessary actions to address concerns at this location,” the police department said.