An early morning fire tore through a shopping center in Nederland on Thursday, leveling a Boulder County sheriff’s substation and torching at least 19 businesses including a children’s nature center and a popular brewery. 

No injuries were reported in the fire, which broke out about 3:30 a.m. in the Caribou Village Shopping Center and sent flames 20 feet in the air. The fire had been “knocked down substantially” by 5:50 a.m., the Boulder County Sheriff’s Office said.  It’s not yet clear what caused the fire. 

Among other businesses destroyed were a music shop, laundromat and a yoga studio.

Evacuation orders were also issued for multiple neighborhoods surrounding the two-story Caribou Village Shopping Center, which lies on the Peak to Peak Highway, or State Highway 119, in the center of town. The orders were lifted just before 10 a.m.

The Carousel of Happiness, Train Cars Coffee and B&F Grocery are still standing.  

Kallea Cohen, who lives near the Nederland Community Center on the opposite side of town from the fire, said she was awakened by what sounded like an explosion sometime before 4:30 a.m. “I thought it might be fireworks or something, maybe someone shooting off a loud gun.” 

Barbara Hardt, managing editor of the Mountain-Ear Newspaper in Nederland, watches the smoke from a fire that burned more than a dozen businesses in the town of 1,500 in the early morning hours of Oct. 9, 2025. (Tracy Ross, The Colorado Sun)

Billy Giblin, Nederland mayor, was out of town when the fire started. Giblin’s wife, Zoe, who lives in Old Town directly across from the fire, heard about the fire around 7 a.m. “I am in shock,” she said. 

Jen Karowe, who lives in Big Springs and owns Hub Ned, a co-working space across the street from the plaza, said her family received an emergency alert at around 5 a.m. and went to the community center where around 15 people had gathered. She said her family has returned home and that smoke is moving away from Big Springs toward Barker Reservoir. “The loss of businesses to the community is devastating,” she said. 

“We are absolutely devastated by the fire that took out about 20 businesses today, including ours,” Doug Armitage, owner of Brightwood Music, wrote on the Facebook page Nedheads. 

“I am so sorry…I loved your store…my family and I bought several instruments from you,” Lisa Moyers, a resident of Arvada, responded to the loss of Brightwood Music.  

Barbara Hardt, Armitage’s wife and managing editor of Nederland’s Mountain-Ear Newspaper, said she heard about the fire at around 4 a.m. while driving to Nederland from her home in Gilpin County. “I came over the hill and saw the whole top of the shopping center ablaze,” she said. 

Brightwood burned quickly because it was filled with wooden instruments, she said. All were lost, including a 100-year-old violin Armitage owned that Hardt said several of the shop’s violins were modeled after. “He had one guitar at home,” she said. “He lost his personal bass and mandolin.” The two were in the process of moving the business to a new location across the street in three weeks. Hardt said she doesn’t know how much her insurance will cover. A pastor from Calvary Chapel prayed with her, for a good outcome with insurance.  

Dawn Baumhover, manager of the Nederland Community Center, said the community center, Nederland food pantry, Calvary Chapel and Knotted Root brewery are all open for people “to gather, grab a bagel or muffin, and just be together.” 

Reba Mitchell, who worked at Wild Bear Nature Center over a span of 15 years said the loss of the Arthropod Zoo and other exhibits will be a deep loss for the community that has sent children there for classes and workshops over the past 20 years.

Several other animals are thought to have burned in the fire. Among them were a turtle, Westie, a snake, Luna, salamanders Sal and Sally, a scorpion, Vinny, and several cockroaches and crickets. 

“The whole Wild Bear vision and everything (founder) Jill Dreves built is within that space,” she said. “The only positive is that the new nature center is being built and is almost completed.” 

This is a breaking news story that will be updated