GILPIN COUNTY, Colo. — Colorado is no stranger to the devastating impacts of wildland fires. One fire protection district now wants to expand its capabilities to tackle growing threats in the high country.
The Timberline Fire Protection District has ten employees and 40 volunteers who cover 175 square miles.
"About 50% of its national forest. And obviously in national forest, there's very little infrastructure; the roads are not good; they're not well maintained. And there's a lot of people out there recreating all the time and ATVs and campfires," Fire Chief Paul Ondr said of the unique challenges high country fire districts face.
Ondr said in their area, there hasn't been a significant wildfire in years. In a high fire danger area, he describes it as mostly luck. But in such a popular place for hikers and campers, people have been pushing that luck.
"We were up last night. We had been called out to a smoke sighting found about 20 campfires," Ondr said.
The district's 6,500 residents would be at risk if a fire broke out.
"We didn't have a good presence in Rollinsville. We know that the district never has. So it's always been sort of a problem," Ondr said.
That's why they started a new station in the old Fritz Peak Observatory. It had not been in use for years and was gifted to the district by the government. However, the free building needs a lot of work to become a functional fire station.
"It's 75 years old, so there are issues. We had to replace the sewer line, we have roof issues, and we knew we'd have to put bays on it," Ondr said.
Colorado's U.S. Rep Joe Neguse heard about the project during a community meeting.
"We decided to do something about it and thought that it'd be a perfect project for us to submit as part of the community project funding program in Washington, D.C.," Neguse said.
The station improvements would cost around $1.6 million. Neguse hopes around $900,000 of that can come from federal funds. It would help pay for vehicle bays that would allow trucks and heavy equipment to be stored at the new station, ready and waiting for a call. Crews also want to put in a 30,000 gallon water cistern.
"We have about six fire hydrants in 175 square miles, and they're all in one little area down by the justice center in the rec center," explained Ondr.
The improvements would help crews cover more ground quickly.
"Our average response times right now to the Rollinsville area are around 12 minutes from our staff station, which is farther south. We're anticipating about cutting that in half," Ondr said.
Neguse said he is cautiously optimistic the project will work it's way through the Congress after getting bipartisan approval from the House Committee on Appropriations. He anticipates the matter to be discussed on the floor around September.
"These firefighters sacrifice everything. They work incredibly hard. They deserve to have a facility that ultimately meets their needs and the needs of this community," Neguse said.
