Thank you for engaging with your local fire department! In our 2019 Annual Report you will find a collection of our most important stories of the year along with vital statistics for our department.

As a department, 2019 was a landmark year. After the critical passage of City ballot issue 2B for a First Responder Tax, we began planning for three new additional fire stations and the personnel needed to staff these stations. These are the first additional fire stations added to our community in 15 years and we launched an exciting recruitment campaign to fill the positions needed as these stations are built. Our promise to the voters is a tall order but we are committed to hiring only the best to serve and continue providing the services our community relies on.

Our Fire Prevention Bureau partnered with the Mesa County Building Department to adopt the latest version of the International Fire Code for both the City and the Grand Junction Rural Fire Protection District. This branch of our organization is involved in the life safety planning of all new buildings in the City. They also inspect critical infrastructure and businesses to make sure that life safety codes and standards are continuously being upheld.

In Operations, emergency medical incidents continue to represent the majority of our call volume. The population of adults over 65 in our community is expected to grow at double the rate of other age groups in the coming years. To manage this growth, we will continue to look for creative and efficient ways to handle the diverse calls this brings to our department. From a social work internship program, to modeling quick response vehicles, and analyzing peak use times, we aim to provide the right level of care to people when they need us most.

Our all-hazard services were fortunate to receive funding for the purchase of new technical rescue equipment to respond safely to emergencies that happen in the beautiful country surrounding our department.

Our outreach office continues to find new opportunities to reduce the risk in our community. With two fire fatalities in 2019, we recognized a need to continue educating the public about exit drills in the home. In conjunction with many other local agencies, we were proud to purchase and begin using Delaney’s Safety house to teach families about fire risks and the importance of fire drills in their home. After a major wildfire at one of our local state parks, we are also working with several agencies to address the wildfire risks in our community.

I appreciate you taking the time to learn about your fire department. As always, we look forward to humbly serving our community through our responses, prevention of emergencies, partnerships, and continued pursuit of excellence as the Grand Junction Fire Department.

Grand Junction is the largest City on Colorado's Western Slope and serves as a hub for many experiences ranging from one of a kind outdoor experiences to unparalleled local dining and entertainment. With dozens of hiking and mountain biking trails, Grand Junction is a paradise for enthusiasts of all levels. Many trails are featured through the Colorado National Monument, a 20,500-acre park covering deep canyons, stone monoliths and great views that reach 2,000 feet above the Colorado River! Beautifully complimenting this well-known landmark is the nationally recognized Grand Mesa. The Grand Mesa is the largest flattop mountain in the world that sits 11,000 feet above sea level. Whether you hunt, fish, ski, or just want to camp out and enjoy the view, the Grand Mesa has you covered! The Grand Valley is also home to more than 20 wineries that span the valley; you can explore these wineries on bike, a chauffeured wine tour, or a wine country floating tour down the Colorado River!

Want something for the whole family? Enjoy the downtown Market on Main; a showcase of local produce, handmade products, art, and live entertainment that is held every Thursday during the summer months! From great downtown exploration to gorgeous red rock scenery, there is so much to see and do in Grand Junction!

The Grand Junction Fire Department (GJFD) is the largest department in the grand valley, GJFD responds to a population of over 83,000 people and runs over 16,500 calls per year. GJFD’s services include EMS, fire, HAZ-MAT, technical rescue, a wildland fire team, fire prevention, and community outreach.

As the community continues to grow, GJFD is expanding to ensure that our citizenry receives the best possible care and service; to do this, more stations and personnel will be added thanks to funding from the First Responder Tax passed in 2019.

To ensure the best service to the community, GJFD prioritizes training, safety, and health of its employees. The addition of two new clean cab engines that help protect firefighters from the carcinogens of smoke and one new ambulance provides our personnel the best tools to serve their community while ensuring that the health of our first responders is being supported by our department.

During the 2019 GJFD Recruit Academy instructors routinely reminded the cadets that this was just the beginning of their career-long education in everything that a fire department does. Looking around the City of Grand Junction and the surrounding landscape you might notice the extraordinary diversity in Mesa County. Grand Junction is the largest City between Denver and Salt Lake City and contains: a major river, a railway line, a section of highly traveled interstate, four hospitals, a bustling University, numerous schools ranging from Pre-K to high school, a regional airport, and is surrounded by a National Monument, BLM land, and is a stone’s throw from the Grand Mesa.

When you add them all together you get a variety of hazards and the Grand Junction Fire Department has to be prepared to deal with anything that might arise. Crammed into the 17 weeks of Fire Academy is practical instruction in: fire suppression, river rescue, high and low angle rescue, vehicle extrication, and HAZ-MAT response to name a few.

Our cadets will graduate knowing that they will continue to learn new skills and refine old ones for the rest of their careers. They will trade bunker gear for wet suits, and operate within a city block as comfortably as hanging from a shear rock face. Additionally, 80% of their time will be spent on medical calls. Responding in a fire apparatus or ambulance our cadets will be expected to practice emergency medicine far more frequently than any other skill. Compulsory daily training is required to keep these diverse skills honed.

Our cadets will be required to maintain certifications and are scrutinized on a daily basis to ensure they are performing at the level required by the department. When our cadets have fully integrated into our system they can pursue additional training in specialty fields like wildland firefighting, or paramedicine. If that isn’t enough, our firefighters can contribute to numerous committees that shape and provide guidance for our department.

For the first time in its modern history, the Grand Junction Fire Department hired individuals with no prior experience in emergency medicine or firefighting.

“The goal,” said Battalion Chief Matt Carson, “was to hire quality individuals that we could place in a focused Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) program followed by a fire academy.” Seven individuals from 299 applicants were selected for this new program. “We knew the program would be grueling," said Carson “We picked individuals that have excelled academically in the past.” The seven candidates attended class, Monday through Friday, for four weeks learning these new skills.

A combination of classroom-style lessons and practical exercises kept the group busy. The group took turns acting as a patient or the EMT while simulating numerous medical scenarios. At any given time, members of the class could be found in the stairwell of the GJFD Administration building learning how to safely lift a patient that had suffered a fall, as well as best practices for maneuvering a large rolling gurney around narrow hallways. In four weeks, the group completed daily quizzes, a midterm exam, and a final exam. “The accelerated pace of the class really bonded this group together" said Chief Carson, “They learned to work as a group and support each other and they also learned a lot about managing stress which is a required skill when working in public safety.”

In 2019, members of the Grand Junction Professional Firefighter’s Local 2808 took to the streets to share information about the City of Grand Junction’s proposed ballot measure for a First Responder Tax. The tax increase, while modest, would fund three new fire stations along with additional fire, police, and dispatch personnel.

The Firefighter’s Union supported and spearheaded the effort through the Answering the Call committee to educate the community about what this would mean for their emergency services and their pocketbooks. Committee members, families, and friends spent time off-duty canvassing neighborhoods and having community meetings with organizations throughout the City to answer questions and concerns.

In April of 2019 voters passed Ballot Measure 2B, the first City sales tax increase in 30 years, with 59% of the total 18,000 votes cast. This 0.5% increase will provide additional funds for both the Grand Junction Fire Department and Grand Junction Police Department for years to come.

Beginning in 2020, GJFD will start building the first new fire station and hiring firefighters and EMTs to staff it. Station 6 will be the first new station for the community in over 15 years and is anticipated to open in the Fall of 2020.

In 2019 the Grand Junction Fire Department accomplished the long sought after goal of bringing a live fire training facility to our community. Up to this point, Grand Junction Firefighters had to travel to locations outside of Mesa County or find a donated structure that was about to be demolished in order to complete realistic and required training on fire extinguishment.

Having a structure donated for the purposes of setting on fire is not as simple as it sounds. The home has to be in a safe location that would not endanger nearby structures or utilities. The structure would then have to be checked for asbestos and if present, expensive mitigation would be required. That still wasn’t the end of the road. The home would then have to be made safe for fire training by adding features such as new sheet rock and blocking voids in the home to ensure that the flames could be controlled and not run loose inside the structure during training. Between materials and labor, operating inside donated structures has proven to be costly.

The live fire training facility was a collaborative effort between the City of Grand Junction, Colorado Mesa University, and the Colorado Division of Fire Prevention and Control (CDFPC). This collaboration and two separate grants secured by the GJFD and CDFPC allowed the 2019 construction of this live-fire facility with a total cost of $1.2M. City budgeted funds in this project totaled just over $450K. The building contains numerous special features and props designed to challenge and train GJFD firefighters and firefighters from across the Western Slope.

The exterior of the building is a multilevel structure that provides a variety of scenarios for ladder operations. The exterior also features a high angle roof section with a replaceable wooden platform that can be sawed through to simulate ventilation of a burning structure. Inside the building are rooms, corridors, and stairs that can be filled with artificial smoke to disorient firefighters. The ground floor features a burn room that can be filled with wooden materials and ignited. The second-floor features propane fueled fire props that simulate a flaming bed or a curtain of flames rolling along a ceiling. Firefighters in Grand Junction and from departments all over the Western Slope now have a reliable training facility to prepare crews for the reality of fighting fire.

On July 4th, 2019, the Grand Junction Fire Department was dispatched to a growing brushfire in the area of Skyway Drive. The caller to 9-1-1 indicated that fireworks had been seen going off in the area and coupled with red flag conditions caused the fire to spread rapidly, traveling uphill towards homes on Skyway Drive and Promontory Court to the west. In addition, two fire engines with the Mesa County Sheriff’s Office Wildland Fire Team were staffed for the holiday due to red flag conditions and immediately responded. The first fire crews on scene worked quickly to determine the best access to the fire, as it continued to grow in the ravine between the two neighborhoods. Command requested additional engines from GJFD and assistance from the Bureau of Land Management to help combat the blaze.

The Incident Dispatch Team (IDT) was requested to respond to the scene; allowing communications to be handled at the location of the fire separate from emergency calls continuing throughout the County. Officers from the Grand Junction Police Department and Mesa County Sheriff’s Office began assisting with traffic control and working with command to determine if any evacuations would be necessary.

Requested air resources of a Type 1 helicopter arrived and began dropping water on the fire running parallel to Riverview Drive. Ground crews continued to work the fire and indicate priority locations for the water drops. Patrol units from the GJPD and MCSO begin evacuating homes along Riverview Drive. Strong winds pushed the fire directly up the hill towards the houses lining Riverview Drive and flames reached the fence line of several homes before being extinguished. In total seven homes were evacuated.

Crews continued to access hard to reach areas adjacent to Connected Lakes and a Sheriff’s Office boat was used to access areas of active fire that could only be reached by water. After nearly 6 hours the fire was 100% contained.

Firefighter/Paramedic Brian Clark gets big ideas. In 2015, Firefighter/Paramedic Clark responded to a medical call involving a male in his 30’s having a cardiac arrest. The patient had not received pre-arrival CPR and tragically did not survive the event. As a result, Firefighter/Paramedic Clark spearheaded a GJFD community outreach effort to promote and teach Compression-Only CPR for free in our community. Not one to rest on his laurels, in 2019 he undertook a project to bring another safety tool to the department. Collaborating with the Mesa County Fire Chief’s, Mesa County EMS Council, and Delaney Donates, Firefighter/Paramedic Clark spent countless hours conducting research and developing support to purchase a new inflatable Safety House for use by all Mesa County fire agencies. Statistically, children learn more from watching and doing than just listening.

The adage is true: “A picture is worth a thousand words.” Showing children fire safety, for example, practicing a fire escape plan; is much more effective than just talking about it. With the aid of the Safety House we can show, and thus instill, fire-safe behaviors and fire prevention’s best practices. While the children have fun, they are being empowered with lifelong fire safety skills. These skills do not only benefit and protect them, but their families, friends, and neighbors too. The Safety House is a 3D replica, of a three-bedroom house that provides an interactive, fun, and educational environment for children to learn and retain the essentials of fire safety. The Safety House emphasizes important things to remember in the event of a fire, such as knowing your address and calling 911 when there is an emergency. It provides visuals for potential fire hazards, such as the fireplace, lit candles, and clothes placed over a lamp. It also explains the purpose of a smoke detector and emphasizes how loud it is; so, it can wake people up if there is a fire. With convenient indoor and outdoor versatility, the Safety House can be set up almost anywhere. It is equipped with fun features, such as bouncing and jumping areas and a slide. These additions help keep children engaged while learning life-saving lessons.

Just over 170 fire chiefs, speakers, and exhibitors from eight surrounding states joined GJFD for the annual Missouri Valley Fire Chief's conference in 2019. Every year the conference is hosted by a different fire department within the organization's membership. Until last year, Grand Junction Fire Department had not hosted the conference for over 20 years. The conference offers opportunities for fire chiefs to learn about emerging technologies, best practices, leadership, and network to serve our communities as they grow and change.

All of the proceeds of the conference go back to the Missouri Valley Division of Fire Chiefs, but the conference also supported downtown and the local economy with services provided by Grand Junction Convention Center, The Avalon, local musicians, local restaurants, gift stores, Market on Main, local hotels, Grand Junction Regional Airport, Student Transportation, and the Colorado National Monument. The GJFD spent nearly three years in advance submitting proposals to host and plan the conference which ultimately raised $20,277 that will go to support cutting-edge professional development for the fire chiefs in the organization. Opportunities like these not only allow GJFD to serve the larger fire service on a national level, but also afford an opportunity to learn from other departments and continue to provide the best services possible to our citizens and our employees.