Fire Department

Mission Statement

The Glenwood Springs Fire Department provides service through dedication, professionalism, and excellence.

Services Provided

The Fire Department is a dedicated team of 27 full-time, 15 part-time members providing services to an estimated 16,000 full-time residents and a daytime population of over 21,000 in our seventy-two (72) square mile response area. In addition, recreation opportunities afforded by hot springs, ski resorts, white water rafting, cycling, hiking, an amusement park and more have established Glenwood Springs as a premier tourist destination with a steady influx of visitors.

The team provides a wide array of both emergent and non-emergent services to our community and guests through coordination by three divisions. They are the administration division, the fire prevention and public education division and the fire suppression and emergency medical operations division.

Administration

The administration division includes the fire chief, deputy chief, and emergency service coordinator. This division provides department oversight for all divisions and functions and is responsible for policy and procedure development and compliance. The chiefs provide supervision through the fire officers in the stations for efficient and effective delivery of our services to the public. The chief also represents the department and the city on the Garfield County Combined Emergency Communications Board, Garfield County Public Safety Council, Garfield County Local Emergency Planning Council and the All Hazards Response Team Board. His involvement in these groups helps to ensure better coordination and training of fire, law enforcement and other resources throughout the region.

Fire Prevention and Public Education

The deputy fire marshal, under supervision of the chief, reviews and approves all commercial and residential building plans for fire code compliance and oversees the fire prevention division. With support from the operational officers and firefighters as well as a part time fire inspector, the prevention division provides fire code inspections and fire safety education to all commercial building owners. The prevention division also provides public education programs in our school systems and wildfire risk management in our community.

Operations

The operations division, under the leadership of the six officers, a deputy chief, and chief, provide first response to all calls for service within our response area from our three stations. These highly trained and dedicated men and women staff the stations 24/7 and respond to all types of fire, EMS, rescue and hazardous situation incidents. Fire responses include explosions, structure, wild land, and motor vehicle fires as well as fire alarms and smoke reports. Emergency medical calls continue to be more than sixty percent of our over 2,300 calls annually which include advanced life support response to heart attack, stroke, difficulty breathing and a host of other medical problems as well as traumatic injury. Rescue assignments include river, trail, elevator entrapment and motor vehicle accidents. Hazardous situation incidents include hazardous materials spills or leaks, odor investigations and bomb scares. Operations personnel are faced with multiple calls at the same time on approximately twenty percent of our total incident count, stretching our available personnel very thin, and occasionally requiring mutual aid assistance from our neighbors.