CAL FIRE/Butte County honored tradition recently with a push-in ceremony, welcoming its newest fire engine into service: CAL FIRE/Butte County Fire Engine 33, the department said in a Facebook post.

Stationed in Magalia, and serving the Upper Ridge community and beyond, new Engine 33 is staffed with three personnel thanks to the generosity of taxpayers and Measure H funds.

This time-honored ritual dates back to the days of horse-drawn fire wagons, when crews had to push their equipment back into the bay after a call. Now, it’s a powerful symbol of pride, history, and community.

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Noelle Phillips
The Denver Post
(TNS)

Colorado’s fire departments need 2,263 new firefighters and more than $25 million to buy an estimated 753 new trucks to fight fires over the next two years, according to a report released Monday by the Colorado Division of Fire Prevention and Control.

The division’s 2024 Colorado Fire Service Needs Assessment Survey also found that fire departments are struggling to find enough money for essential equipment and personnel. The Colorado Fire Commission is currently studying ways to better fund the state’s 340 fire departments.

“Fire service is expensive and getting all the equipment you need is difficult, especially with property taxes being reduced it makes it even more difficult,” said Lisa Pine, the state’s fire training director, who conducted the survey.  “As we all know the cost of living in Colorado is very high and there has been a lot of work done to reduce how expensive it is to live here. But a consequence of that is it reduces the funding for your local fire department.”

The needs assessment also comes as Colorado’s wildfire season becomes year-round and the fires are more intense and burn more acreage.

“The workload continues to grow for the fire departments and the resources to go along with it just aren’t,” said Mike Morgan, director of the Division of Fire Prevention and Control. “We’re going to have to get creative to find solutions.”

For the 2024 survey, 57% of the state’s fire departments responded, reporting that they need:

• An additional 1,121 career and 1,142 volunteer firefighters over the next two years
• 753 new and replacement apparatuses over the next two years
• $25,282,489 over the next two years to buy needed equipment

Even while stretched thin, Colorado’s fire departments are able to respond to disasters,  Pine said.

“The one thing about the fire service is no matter what they have, they will do it professionally and with all the energy needed to protect their communities,” she said. “They’ll do it because that’s what they signed up to do.”

In Colorado, most fire departments are funded through property taxes, although the Colorado General Assembly two years ago approved a measure that allows departments to petition voters for a sales tax increase. Still, funding is tight as the state wrestles with affordability for its residents as the cost of running a fire department gets more expensive each year.

In recent years, property values have soared and property taxes have climbed as well. But elected officials in 2024 capped how much taxing districts, including fire departments, can increases taxes each year and lowered assessment rates for homeowners, meaning fire departments cannot depend on increased property values for more revenue.

“It truly is a complex problem,” said Vail Fire and Emergency Services Chief Mark Novak, who also serves on the state fire commission. “We have 64 counties with very different characteristics.”

In a mountain resort town such as Vail, the various taxes paid by tourists help fund Novak’s department. But a fire department in a farm community on the Eastern Plains will not be as wealthy because property taxes on agricultural land are much lower, he said.

And in a small community, a sales tax may not be all that lucrative because there are fewer people to spend money.

“Taxes are always a push/pull,” he said. “No community wants to have the highest sales tax in

Special Delivery Alan M. Petrillo

The Reno (NV) Fire Department protects a very diverse city and surrounding area. Its responsibilities span high-rise casinos, commercial and light industrial districts, numerous residential enclaves, a major interstate running through the middle of town next to the Truckee River, a significant rail corridor in city limits, wildland urban interface areas (WUI), and rural wildland territory.

Given this varied landscape, the department found it imperative to replace its 40-year-old rescue truck with a state-of-the art rig capable of handling all technical rescue disciplines, including urban search and rescue (USAR) operations. After investigating several manufacturers, the department ultimately commissioned Rosenbauer to build its new heavy technical rescue truck.

Ernie Young, Rosenbauer western regional sales manager, says Reno Fire’s new truck is on a Commander EXT 78-inch four-door cab and chassis with an 11-inch raised roof; seating for six firefighters, four in H.O. Bostrom self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) seats with IMMI SmartDock brackets; a Cummins L9 engine; and an Allison 4000 EVS automatic transmission. Young points out that the technical rescue is built on a tandem-rear-axle chassis with 11 body compartments, four of them transverse, along with four underframe storage cabinets and eight coffin compartments.

Peter Briant, Reno Fire’s division chief of support services, says the new Rosenbauer heavy technical rescue truck is the perfect vehicle for the department’s rescue firefighters and its USAR team.

“Reno is in an earthquake-prone area, so we set up the new truck to be able to shore buildings, handle entrapments, perform concrete cutting and breaching, do vehicle extrication on our highways and roads, and have the heavy extrication capabilities for semi trucks and cement trucks with our lifting bags and struts,” Briant observes. “The Truckee River canyon to the west of us could cut us off from assistance after an earthquake and isolate us, so the new Rosenbauer technical rescue makes us self-sufficient.”

Briant notes that because Reno was replacing a 40-year-old rescue truck, it outfitted the new rig with all-new equipment, including state-of-the-art Makita battery-operated saws, drills, jackhammers, and chain saws. “A very important element on our new technical rescue was the capability for low- and high-angle rescue, confined space, being able to build shoring, perform trench rescue, and carry other heavy equipment for entrapment,” he says. “All the truck’s components are state-of-the-art with plenty of plywood to make shores for buildings and also Paratech gold struts and gray struts that allow us to go in and immediately rescue people and then build long-term shoring out of wood.”

Jonathan Moberly, Reno Fire captain and director of its USAR team, lays out the compartments on the new Rosenbauer heavy technical rescue truck. The L1 compartment holds a Holmatro Pentheon battery-operated spreader, cutter, and ram; Paratech Hydrafusion struts, longshore struts, and gray struts; an assortment of chains and come-alongs; and two Hi-Lift jacks, all mounted on pull-out trays and tool boards.

The L2 compartment has more Paratech equipment for shoring and custom polypropylene boxes with adapters for bipods and tripods, nailing pads for building shoring, a Paratech high-pressure bag, MaxiForce low-pressure bags, two pull-out trays of Paratech gold longshore and gray struts, hydraulic floor and bottle jacks, and an air chisel. He adds that the rig’s wheel well compartments have enough storage space for 18 SCBA bottles.

Moberly says L3 holds a Stokes basket, Paratech high-pressure air bags, and a full complement of Paratech lifti

Madison County Sheriff’s Office, along with the Northern Rockies Complex Incident Management Team 6, on Monday identified the firefighter who died in the line of duty on the Bivens Creek Fire as Ruben Gonzales Romero of Keizer, Oregon.

“Ruben was a veteran wildland firefighter with over 20 years of experience and was currently on a Type 2 crew with TJ Contracting LLC,” an update from fire managers reads. “He served primarily as a sawyer, a firefighter who fells and cuts trees and brush with a chainsaw, as part of a 20 person crew and brought significant experience and wisdom to the fire line and the people with whom he worked. We rest a little more comfortably knowing that he died doing what he loved.”

He suffered a cardiac emergency on Sunday. Medical assistance was rendered from a paramedic on the fire line, however resuscitation efforts were unsuccessful.

A post on the TJ Forestry Facebook page publicly confirmed the passing of Romero Monday afternoon.

“He was a dedicated firefighter whom loved his job and enjoyed running his saw on the line. He brought joy, laughter, and wisdom to every crew he worked on,” the post reads.

“Ruben, you will be dearly missed. Thank you for your dedication and hard work. Our deepest condolences to all his friends and family.”

Romero’s family is in route to Montana and an honor guard made up of incident and local firefighters will remain with Ruben until his body is carried back home.

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