With 17 red flag warnings issued for Montezuma County this June, residents are on high alert for fires. Local volunteer fire departments are too – or, at least, as much as they can be.
“I'm a little low on membership. I'm not really getting any new recruits,” Rico Fire Chief Todd Jones said. “We might have two or three show up during the day. Sometimes we may get more, but yeah, sometimes we struggle.”
His department is composed of around 15 volunteers with a core group of nine. In his 44 years heading Rico Fire Protection District, recruitment has been a consistent issue, but it is particularly worrisome now considering the hot, dry and windy summer creating perfect wildland fire conditions in the region.
“If we start getting fires and have to be on fires, we’re going to struggle to have to take care of everything else at the same time,” Jones said.
He said the department mainly responds to car wrecks and search and rescue efforts which can be taxing on the department.
Jones would consider the department fully staff if it reached 24 volunteers.
“Rico being where it's at, I just don’t have much to draw from,” he said.
Despite being short staffed, there hasn't been a single unanswered call. If needed, Rico’s team is supported by other departments in Montezuma, San Miguel and Dolores counties.
“We make every call. Sometimes we’re lacking. We have to have help here,” Jones said.
Rick Spencer, Cortez Fire Protection District assistant fire chief, estimated his fire department, which has a full-paid staff, responded to between six and 10 mutual aid calls last year from departments in the county as well as in Rico and Dove Creek.
“It's a give-and-take countywide. Everybody helps everybody. We will go help any department that needs help and likewise the volunteering agencies will come help us if we need help also,” Spencer said.
With more people taking jobs outside of the communities they live in, he said, the limited availability of volunteers is a nationwide problem.
“20 years ago, the people that volunteered for fire departments, they lived in the community, they worked in the community and they also volunteered for the community,” Spencer said. “And that's going away because more and more people are having to go to work outside of the community that they live in and volunteer for.”
Day time availability is a main struggle for volunteer fire departments, including Rico’s, which is staffed with only two or three people during typical working hours. Cortez is staffed with anywhere between five and eight firefighters depending on the day.
“We look at those conditions, and if it warrants we will upstaff two additional people to come in and staff a brush truck, and they're there strictly to respond to brush fires,” Spencer said.
For Jones, even the trucks are an issue as one made in the 1990s recently broke down. It happened to be his wildland fire truck.
“That’s a very, very important truck so I’ve got to figure that one out as soon as we can. We use that one for brush fires quite often,” Jones said.
He applied for grants to replace the truck but it could still be a year before he gets one. Right now, Jones said, his priorities are personnel and upgraded equipment.
Dolores Fire Protection District is struggling with personnel too, hosting an open house this weekend in the hopes of boosting recruitment.
Jones’ wife, Kim, is the Dolores fire chief and works most days with little support.
“It's volunteer, so not many people want to spend the time these days to do something they're not gonna get paid for,” she said. “And this is all over the United States.”
Mancos, Dove Creek and Pleasant View are just some of the other small communities in Southwest Colorado supported by volunteers.
In terms of why someone should spend their time volunteering, Jones recounted a successful rescue the department executed last year as an example.
“We had a kid almost die on us last year, up in the woods, took us about five hours to get him out, and he survived,” Jones said. “And I'm hearing that he's getting better all the time. Learning to walk and all kinds of stuff.”
It’s both a necessary and noble cause, according to the firefighting couple.
“When bad things happen to people and you can make it better and you feel good about it – I mean, that’s what it’s all about,” he said.
avanderveen@the-journal.com
