Homeowners pay $400k to have water supply installed in a rural El Paso County community

EL PASO COUNTY, Colo. (KRDO) - After a devastating house fire in a northern El Paso County neighborhood, community members took it upon themselves to have their own firefighting water system installed.

Before today, the closest fire hydrant was at least 15 minutes away. Now, a 45,000 gallon tank is ready to be used to fight wild land or structure burns in the area.

This is something the community tells KRDO13 that they’ve needed for years, "We've been talking about it for 6 or almost 7 years since the house fire," HOA president, Harold Goldback said.

The house fire was devastating loss, due to the closest hydrant being 5 miles away.

Homeowners decided to take action and put $400K of their own money, into creating their own firefighting water supply.

The system can fill up to 40 fire engines and Monument Fire District (MFD) says it's more unique than a typical rural static water system.  

"As the firefighters pull up, hook up to supply hose to the truck and the hydrant and they open the hydrant, the pump kicks on and water comes out. It's a great design and it's a great community service," Division Chief of Community Risk Reduction, Jonathan Bradley said.

The new system cuts the time first responders will take to fight flames to almost nothing, "It's our job to serve them, but they've made our job a lot easier - not just for structure fire but wild land fires as well," Bradley said.

MFD tells KRDO13 that they're working with a few other neighborhoods to have a similar system put in.