Record high calls are stressing Colorado’s EMS, mountain firefighters

There are more people living in their vacation homes in Colorado’s resort communities. There are more people visiting and staying in short-term rental homes.

“But it’s a challenge to quantify any of this,” said Jake Andersen, deputy chief of operations for the Aspen Fire Protection District.

Fire chiefs such as Andersen can gauge one impact of this shift: Call volume in just about every mountain valley reached record highs in 2021 and the calls for help in early 2022 are pacing ahead of last year.

The record increase in calls for emergency service – up 20% in 2021 from 2020 in Aspen, for example – is stressing fire and EMS chiefs as spiking costs of living and housing prices make it difficult to hire and retain firefighters and recruit volunteers. And the new wave of residents and visitors are challenging emergency service providers with longer, more involved issues and injuries.

The Colorado Sun surveyed 15 chiefs at fire protection districts spanning the Western Slope’s most trafficked regions in Eagle, Grand, Gunnison, Pitkin, San Miguel and Summit counties. All reported highest-ever call volume in 2021 and early 2022.

Here’s a sampling of quotes from chiefs when asked what is fueling the increase in calls for service.

The chiefs are adapting responses and reorganizing teams to handle the shifting demand. They have hired more full-time firefighters, EMTs and administrators. They are ramping up volunteer recruitment. Many of these districts recently asked voters for tax relief, allowing them to collect more revenue from property taxes than what’s allowed under the state’s Gallagher Amendment. (In regard to Gallagher: The state must maintain a specific balance in tax collections from homes and commercial properties, so when home values rise, residential assessments drop to keep within that constitutional ratio. That’s bad for fire protection districts and other special taxing districts that rely on a percentage of that property tax revenue.)

The tax relief has helped, but fire districts are now thinking they need more funding for more firefighters and housing for those firefighters as well as firehouse expansions and more equipment. They are struggling with the need for increased training of volunteers on top of a lack of young volunteers. (A lot of the newcomers who can afford homes priced in the millions are older and not volunteering as firefighters.)

“We used to have folks on the sidelines always ready to play, but we are not seeing that anymore. It’s the cost of living. It’s the availability of affordable housing. People are living further away from the community they work in. That’s pretty consistent across all mountain communities,” Telluride’s Chief Bennett said. “And across all industries really. It’s a multitiered issue up here. It’s getting harder to provide services that many expect.”

Cutright, with the Carbondale fire protection district, said it could be time to start paying volunteers “to keep an effective response force.”

Many of the chiefs reported more calls during the week.

“T​he weekend hasn’t become less busy, midweek has become busier,” said Vail’s Chief Novak.

Many also reported more all-hands-on-deck calls for critical emergencies.

In Aspen, for example, firefighters and EMTs responded to 130 “major incidents” in 2021, up from 110 in 2020 and 84 in 2019.

Brad White at the Grand Fire Protection District has tracked calls for emergency services for many years and overlaps those calls with his region’s supply of housing. His data shows call volume growing faster than the community’s number of homes. He says that’s because of changing use of homes as Grand County moves away from its agricultural roots.

“These days we have less agriculture, and more second homes, most of which are in the short-term rental (market),” he said. “So we have more people in town, doing more activities, and very few of them are familiar with the homes they are staying in.”

White said his district’s increasing number of calls – 72 so far this year, up from 51 at this time in 2021 – show only part of the shifting stress for his mostly volunteer firefighters. A small fire that typically could have been contained in a couple hours now takes all day as flames race through dry forests, he said. And responses to accidents take longer because of increased traffic on roads.

His team’s average time commitment for a call in 2014 was 35 minutes. Now it’s 63 minutes. And like most fire chiefs, White is seeing a spike in overlapping calls. In 2020 and 2021, 11% of his calls came when a fire engine was already out on another call.

“While our call volume isn’t huge, they aren’t spread out very well. We’ll go a couple of days and not run a call, but then we’ll go through a four-day period and run 18 calls,” White said

The cost of living and housing in rural mountain communities has made it hard to recruit volunteers as well as full-time firefighters. In Crested Butte, the fire district offers down payment assistance for new firefighters and EMTs, a chance to live in five employee housing units, stipends for volunteers and even a ski pass.

“Despite all we offer, we continue to struggle,” Weisbaum said.

The Durango Herald contributed to this report.

The Colorado Sun is a reader-supported, nonpartisan news organization dedicated to covering Colorado issues. To learn more, go to coloradosun.com.