Monument Fire District preparing for an influx emergency calls due to upcoming storm

MONUMENT, Colo. (KRDO) - A big winter storm is expected to impact all of Colorado, especially the higher terrain areas like Monument.

The Chief of the Monument Fire District, Andy Kovacs, said they're developing an incident action plan. On Wednesday fire crews were creating an area command post to have all the stakeholder agencies in one room.

Kovacs said that they plan to coordinate their response to all the 911 calls they plan on receiving during the upcoming winter storm.

Fire crews also planning to use a vehicle they call the  "snow-cat. "

It's used to help people who are stranded out on the roads. It's also used to get crews to a home if snow is deep and fire engines can’t make it.

If you look at the picture above, you can see it looks like a mini ambulance, but it has the capability to get through snow, unlike your regular emergency response truck.

The Monument Fire District will be putting two people in the truck as well as two others in their type six fleet. 

Kovacs said they're planning to make sure they're all set if this storm gets bad.

"There were several lessons learned from the 2021 winter storm. A lot of it revolved around communication. We did get additional portable radios for the town of Monument public works so we could directly talk between fire resources and public works resources," said Kovacs.

Fire crews are expecting the possibility of two feet of snow to take up the roads in Northern El Paso County.