MANITOU SPRINGS, Colo. (KOAA) — The Manitou Springs Fire Department opened its doors to the community Saturday to showcase a new fire mitigation tool and introduce residents to its fuels crew.
The department received $690,000 from the Manitou Springs City Council to fund fire mitigation tools and the fuels crew back in December of 2025.
One of the new pieces of equipment on display was the trailered air curtain burner, the Burn Boss, a tool designed to help manage vegetation and debris.
Lt. Michael Willie of the Manitou Springs Fire Department explained how the equipment works.
"Instead of us creating this giant biomass of wood chips or just having a bunch of limbs and trees and stuff, we can use this to burn it and we get the benefit of burning it," said Lt. Willie.
Willie says the tools will be especially beneficial given the dry summer conditions.
"Manitou is in what we call wild land urban interface, and we're right in the middle of it. We have lots of fuel in Manitou, and with the summer we've had, it's extremely dry and we need to do anything we can to help prevent a major wildfire from coming into Manitou," said Lt. Willie.
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