 The Durango Fire & Rescue Authority is a combination department with a total of 171 employees and members. The department maintains 16 stations, 3 of which are staffed by paid fire fighters and medics, while the remaining 13 stations are crewed by our dedicated volunteers. Our primary response area encompasses 385 square miles. In addition, our ambulances respond into a neighboring fire protection district, providing paramedic level transport.
The department was created by the combining of 3 fire departments and a hospital based ambulance service. Animas Fire Protection District,
Hermosa Cliffs Fire Protection District
,
Durango
Fire Department, and Mercy Ambulance consolidated January 1st, 2002, there by creating The Durango Fire & Rescue Authority.
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In today's world, things change constantly. Today's Firefighters must also be ready for the challenge of how their response to a structure fire has also changed. The Construction Industry in general has had to develop new materials and methods of manufacturing just to keep up with the increase in demand. This in effect has made structural firefighting more dangerous. The increase of fire loads have doubled. Firefighters of the past fought fires of materials made primarily from cotton and wood. The present day firefighter faces building contents of polyurethane and plastic. With this modern manufacturing development, fire involvement causes higher temperatures and much quicker burn rates than before. You can also include lightweight construction techniques and highly energy efficient buildings to the problems that today's firefighters must be prepared for. The establishment of effective SOP's will prepare the firefighter for confronting a fire in today's modern building construction. The development of Incident Priorities, Strategic Goals and Tactical Objectives will help guide the operation to a safe and successful outcome.
Battalion Chief Mick Stowers
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Durango Fire & Rescue’s EMS Division serves a 385-square mile primary response area providing care to approximately 2,800 patients annually. We operate 6 fully licensed Advanced Life Support ambulances, and 3 transport rescues. We are also the initial response agency for hundreds of miles of national forest, BLM and BIA lands that surround the district, and have mutual aid agreements with all surrounding Fire and EMS agencies. Our certified Paramedics, along with Basic and Intermediate level Emergency Medical Technicians, are proud to practice some of the most advanced pre-hospital medicine allowed. Our goal is to deliver rapid, high quality, compassionate care to our patients and to be strong advocates of a safe and healthy community. More than 85% of the calls answered by DFRA involve EMS.
EMS Chief Scott Sholes
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The DFRA Technical Response Team was formally organized in 2003 to help meet the many diverse technical rescue challenges in our service area and the surrounding region. These include industrial sites, vertical cliffs, steep embankments, gorges and swiftwater challenges. We work closely with several mutual aid agencies within the region to ensure a seamless structured response as it pertains to technical rescue. To be a part of this specialized team requires a significant commitment of time in initial and ongoing training to ensure a competent safe response from our members. Our overriding goal for the DFRA Technical Response Team is to provide our community with safe, timely, and efficient technical rescue solutions that are both gentle on the patient and the rescuers.
EMS Captain Leo Lloyd, RN/Paramedic - Team Coordinator |
Swift water rescue is a subset of technical rescue that involves the use of specially trained personal, ropes, mechanical advantage systems and river rafting equipment. The training is especially useful in that there is several commercially and privately run sections of white water, including class V, in DFRA's district. DFRA maintains swift water rescue techs, rescue swimmers and commercial river guides on staff. DFRA maintains equipment necessary to perform swift water rescue. DFRA personal trained in swift water rescue are available to assist search and rescue if requested.
Engineer Dana Scalf, Team Leader
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Extrication is the process of removing one or more individuals that are trapped inside of a vehicle that has been involved in a motor vehicle accident. This requires that the vehicle be removed from around those victims. Durango Fire Rescue Authority personnel are well trained and equipped to respond to all such incidences. Our equipment consists of items ranging from several types of hydraulic spreaders, cutters, and rams to pneumatic air jacks and air chisels. Training is accomplished in as realistic type setting as possible with challenging scenarios which mimic actual accident scenes. Even with all the training and preparation, we find that every real extrication incident is different than the one before, and requires each participating rescuer to exercise logic and reasoning in order to accomplish a successful extrication.
Training Captain Robert Harms
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Fire prevention is the most important non-firefighting or non-EMS activity performed by firefighters. Most fires are caused by unsafe or careless acts, equipment failure, arson, or acts of nature. Many fires can be prevented by teaching safe behaviors and eliminating unsafe conditions.
Fire Prevention includes the range of activities that are intended to prevent the outbreak of fires or limit the consequences if a fire does occur by limiting the loss of life or property. These activities include education, engineering, inspection, enforcement, and investigation.
Education is the method used to instruct and inform groups and individuals of the dangers of fire and its possible effects, ways to prevent the outbreak of fire, and appropriate actions in the event of an emergency.
Good engineering practices such as fire sprinklers, standpipes, alarms, adequate egress, and rated separation can do much to provide built-in safeguards. These help to prevent fires from starting or spreading, notify occupants, provide for safe egress, and fire extinguishment.
Inspection provides for compliance with the adopted fire code for site access, water supply, construction and design, operations, storage, and maintenance. The Fire Prevention Bureau also conducts inspections and acceptance testing of fire alarm systems, water-based sprinkler systems, and special extinguishing systems. Enforcement is the legal means of correcting deficiencies that pose a threat to life and property, and is implemented when other methods fail.
All fires are investigated to determine their cause and origin. Fire investigation aids prevention efforts by indicating problem areas that may require additional educational efforts or legislation to correct deficiencies.
Prevention is the purest form of suppression.
Fire Inspector Martin Saint
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The Durango Fire & Rescue Authority houses the only hazardous materials technician response team in the five-county, two-tribe Colorado Southwest Homeland Security Region. The Haz Mat Team is made up of Technicians from Durango Fire and Rescue Authority (12), Colorado State Patrol (2) and Pagosa Springs Fire Protection District (2). The team has worked to co-found the Colorado Western Slope Hazardous Materials Consortium which is working towards common protocols, interoperable response equipment, and a Mutual Aid Agreement for all Western Slope response teams. The Consortium organizes one full-scale Haz Mat exercise annually.
The Haz Mat team members provide awareness and operations level response training to any requesting emergency response organization in the region through the support of the Colorado Division of Fire Safety Hazardous Materials Training program. The technician team members from the Colorado State Patrol provide Motor Carrier Safety Enforcement in addition to responding with the team.
The team is in the process of working with neighboring Montezuma County Fire Chiefs and Los Pinos Fire Protection District (Southern Ute Indian Tribe) to provide Operations level hazardous materials response capability in the more remote locations of this region. The process is on-going and at present time, both satellite groups have decontamination and defensive control capability to support the Haz Mat Team response.
Training Chief Mark Quick, Haz Mat Team Leader
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