The Denver (CO) Fire Department and city officials broke ground on Fire Station 40 at the corner of Telluride and 56th Avenue Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025, the department said in a Facebook post.

“This is a huge milestone for our community and a major step forward in improving emergency response times and public safety in one of Denver’s fastest-growing areas,” the post said.

Thanks to the Elevate Denver 2017 GO Bond, Station 40 is becoming a reality — a $19.8 million investment to serve the Montbello and Green Valley Ranch neighborhoods with:

• Three bays for fire trucks
• Accommodations for up to eight firefighters and two advanced life support EMTs
• Modern amenities like office space, a fitness room, kitchen, private courtyard, decontamination rooms, and a hose tower

“Shoutout to OZ Architecture and Mark Young Construction for bringing this vision to life. Proud to see our city continuing to invest in safety, infrastructure, and our hardworking emergency personnel.”

The post Denver (CO) FD Breaks Ground on $19.8M Station appeared first on Fire Apparatus: Fire trucks, fire engines, emergency vehicles, and firefighting equipment.

On September 10, I sat down at 3 p.m. and turned on CSPAN-3 to watch a Senate subcommittee hearing about how manufacturers are impacting fire department readiness. I watched it because a lot of what we’ve been reading and, for me, writing about for the past few years has been about lead times and costs. I figured we would get concrete answers on this. A fire chief and the general president of the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) testified, citing lead times and costs as undermining firefighter safety. And, they’re right. If our rigs are out of service or malfunctioning at the scene because we can’t afford either the cost or the wait for new rigs, firefighter safety is absolutely compromised. But, the clarity I hoped for didn’t crystallize, and I began to wonder if this was really about firefighter safety or about business.

Another witness at the hearing was an antitrust lawyer—the person, in fact, who got all this rolling. He asked good questions and made good points. And if the core of all this is about unfair business practices or antitrust law violations, that is one thing. And if that’s what it’s about, personally, I’d rather be left out of it as a firefighter.

There are many sides to what we are experiencing right now. Does the amount of time it takes to get a rig potentially compromise firefighter safety? Yes. But, another question is: How are our fleets being maintained? At the municipal government level, are our requests for new rigs being turned down because the first thing cut from a budget is an apparatus purchase? Did poor past decision-making lead to the crisis a fire department may now be facing that coincides increased lead times and costs? Because all of those things can also lead to a comprise of firefighter safety.

If there is concern in the business world that there are antitrust concerns about fire apparatus manufacturers—businesses—then investigate them. Leave the fire service out of it. Are you saying that there isn’t enough choice in the market? If you break up the brands owned by one company, will that increase your choices, or will it decrease your choices? Filter out the bombast of the hearing and pay attention to the facts.

I do not believe any fire service apparatus or equipment supplier would willingly and intentionally put anyone at risk. I have visited their facilities and company presidents all the way down to the person who tightens the last screw on whatever the product is consider themselves part of the life-saving process, and they take it personally if there is a failure of the device that leads to an injury or death.

Fire apparatus are the big-ticket items. Besides possible new station construction, fire apparatus are the most expensive investments we make. They are naturally going to get attention when we talk about costs. But, where will the Senate stop? There is consolidation in other areas of the fire service. If you go after one area, doesn’t that mean you have to go after another one? And if so, and if the argument for the other companies isn’t firefighter safety, then is this about firefighter safety, or is it about business practices? If it’s about business practices, fine. Just leave the fire service out of it.

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Resources

FAMA Forum: Apparatus Industry Insights

Fire Apparatus Purchasing in 2025

Understanding the State of Fire Apparatus Manufacturing

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