Elizabeth Hernandez

3 weeks ago | thederrick.com | Shelly Bradbury |Elizabeth Hernandez |Jessica Seaman |Nicky Andrews

DENVER — The Pearl Street Mall on Sunday afternoon was so picture perfect — a bluebird sky, Boulder shoppers dipping in and out of brick buildings, children playing in a splash pad — that bystanders didn’t recognize the first flashes of flame as dangerous. Edgar Depaz, 35, saw fire burst from a gardener’s weed sprayer and assumed it was an accident, that the man’s equipment was malfunctioning. Chloe Weber, 41, visiting the splash pad with her son, thought someone had self-immolated in protest.