Fire departments across the state running out of money, manpower, says state-run survey

EL PASO COUNTY, Colo. (KRDO) - In a state where fire season has become year-round, many fire departments say they're running out of money to upgrade old equipment and hire more staff, causing response times to increase.

Two fire departments in El Paso County tell KRDO13 they're now getting squeezed on both sides; budgets are shrinking, and the rising cost of firefighting equipment.

A problem being reflected in a biennial survey of fire departments across the state, the budget issues are nothing new, but they're being exacerbated by skyrocketing inflation, impacting the costs of new firefighting equipment, according to the survey.

"So they've about doubled," says Fire Chief of Colorado Springs Fire Department Randy Royal

Rising prices are affecting more than just groceries and cars; they're also taking a significant toll on fire departments.

"Previously, our...engines would be about $460,000. Now they're close to $900,000...Ladder trucks have gone from about 900,000 to about 1.6 or more," said Fire Chief Royal.

Fire Chief Royal says their yearly machinery budget is a million dollars, which sounds like a lot, but it doesn't buy what it used to.

"Well, that just barely buys one engine and doesn't buy a truck in a year. So that really needs to go up about three times what it is today. To maintain what we need for the future."

The Chief says the Budget shortfalls are hampering the city's ability to keep up with growth, and renovations for older stations are being put on the back burner.

A dilemma that's even worse for smaller fire protection districts, like Cimarron Hills.

"We have between $10 and $15 million worth of capital needs over the next 5 to 10 years," Cimarron Hills Fire Chief Andrew York tells KRDO13 that the number of calls they handle has risen sharply, while funding levels struggle to keep up.

"It's not abnormal for us to have, you know, three or four calls going on at the same time. Which doesn't maybe sound like much if you're talking calls to our Springs fire department. But when you're talking to a small, single-station fire district, three to four calls at one time, or some of our staffing levels that we already have is an issue," said Fire Chief Andrew York.

Chief York says due to this, their response times are going up, and they're often relying on other fire departments to help them out on calls.

This November, Chief York says the Cimarron Hills Fire District will put another sales tax initiative on the ballot to help them meet this shortfall.

Last November, a similar issue was on the ballot, but it failed by 500 votes.

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