FLORISSANT, Colo. (KOAA) — Mid-winter fire danger is making fire bosses nervous in the Teller County mountain town of Florissant. It's so dry that a plan to add extra wildfire resources for the summer season has been activated months early.
Paying attention to wildfire risk is part of living in the Teller and Park County mountain towns. When the wind blows the risk rises, and this year there's been little reprieve from winter snow.
"It's always up," said Mike Coppock, a Colorado high country resident, when asked if his fire radar is up.
"Even midwinter, our snow's measured in the inches, not the feet this year," said Coppock.
"It's dry," said Jeremy Stanley, a Florissant Fire Protection District wildland firefighter.
It's the reason Stanley is already on the job. He's one of the new summer wildland firefighters for the department who was supposed to work May to October.
"We're in a better position for the community," said Stanley.
"Due to the threat of wildfires in the early onset this year, we brought them on in February," said Florissant Fire Chief John Buchan.
Increasing wildfires in recent years motivated the decision to add a couple of seasonal full-time firefighters to the volunteer force. It required piecing together funding.
"We saved money through reimbursements from the state for wildfire deployments, but we've also had to sell off old unused apparatus and roll that money into this program to keep it financially stable," said Buchan.
It is considered an investment in fire response. In a volunteer department, gathering firefighters and getting to a scene can take 20 minutes or more. The full-time firefighters can give volunteers a head start.
"Fires in general double in size every minute. So, the quicker we can get units on the road and to the scene, we can keep the fires small, and that's what our number one goal is," said Buchan.
The fire district has funding for two full-time seasonal wildland firefighters for this year. To keep staffing going, they'll have to figure out more funding sources for years beyond this one.
"This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy."
___
City Council votes to ban car-camping; provide clarity on camping violations
Colorado Springs City Councilmembers spent much of Tuesday addressing concerns about vehicle camping on public property. Council decided all camping violations will now fall under one enforceable law.
____
Watch KOAA News5 on your time, anytime with our free streaming app available for your Roku, FireTV, AppleTV and Android TV. Just search KOAA News5, download and start watching.