COLORADO SPRINGS — A three-person crew from Colorado Springs Fire Department just returned from a 14-day deployment helping at the Elk and Lee fires on the western side of Colorado.
“Not only did we provide protection and different strategies and tactics, as we did some follow through, we were able to take care of animals and livestock that were left behind,” said Lieutenant Todd Smith.
The were part of dealing with hot, dry, and windy conditions that pushed the Lee fire to the 5th largest recorded wildfire in Colorado.
“We gained a wealth of experience,” said Smith.
Offering mutual aid with available resources is common for Colorado Springs Fire Department.
Less typical is the recent high number of requests.
In just one month 17 firefighters have been sent to help with wildfires in other jurisdictions.
“There's quite a few fires going on, but also the number of resources available to be deployed is lower, so that means you're going to start expanding out further away from the center of that fire to gain resources that can come in there, said Colorado Springs Fire Department, Battalion Chief Steve Oswald.
Colorado Springs Fire has crews to offer because the department is highly trained to deal with wildfires.
Deploying firefighters to mutual aid requests adds to those qualfications.
“To gain certifications, to gain leadership experience and to gain big, complex fire experiences, we need to have those people on those kinds of incidents,” said Oswald.
Mutual aid is also the best kind of preparation in the event of wildfires in or around Colorado Springs.
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