Startling Fire Statistics

May 25,2010 – According to a new study, from the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), home fires account for 92 percent of fire deaths that occur in structures. These fires cause an average of 2,840 civilian deaths each year.

“This study strongly underscores the need to aggressively work to reduce the number of home fires in this country in order to save lives from fire,” said Lorraine Carli, vice president of communications.

During the period of 2003-2007, U.S. fire departments responded to approximately 380,000 home fires a year. These fires not only caused a large number of civilian deaths, they also caused an average of 13,160 reported civilian fire injuries and $6.4 billion in direct property damage.

From 2003-2007, smoking materials caused the largest number of fire deaths. Heating equipment was the second leading cause of home fires and home fire deaths.

The leading cause of home structure fires, civilian fire injuries, and unreported fires
continues to be cooking equipment. Forty-one percent of home fires started in the kitchen area and caused 15 percent of the home fire deaths and 36 percent of the reported fire injuries.

What is Nixle?

The Fire District, Woodland Park Police Department and the Teller County Sheriff's Office are now using Nixle!  What is Nixle you might wonder?  It's a web-based notification system much like Twitter to send instant important information right to you through your email, your cell and/or another mobile device.  We can use it to send information about road closures, like for our Christmas Parade, information about a fire incident and community based information like when H1N1 shots might be offered.  Please sign up and have your friends sign up too!  It's the best way to stay in touch with your emergency services!  Click on the link to the left and check it out!

 

Rescue 1 Goes In Service

In an effort to provide the highest level of service to the citizens and visitors of Woodland Park, Northeast Teller Fire has placed into service a 2010 Ford F-350 Rescue vehicle designated “Rescue-1”.  The primary purpose of this vehicle is to respond to calls for emergency medical service, which comprise approximately 60% of the fire departments overall call volume.  In addition this vehicle will respond to traffic collisions, rescue calls, to include rope rescue, special events and general calls for assistance.  Some of the advantages of using a vehicle like this include:

• Quicker, safer and more economical response to calls for our staff and our customers.
• Preserves and prolongs the service life of our heavier more expensive fire engines. 
• Reduces operating costs by using a vehicle with better fuel economy and one that requires less costly maintenance.
• Can access the more remote parts of the fire protection district.
• Our fire engines remain strategically located in the middle of town at fire station 1 to respond to simultaneous alarms. 
• Allows the fire department to split our crews of 4 to respond to additional alarms during times of peak call volume. 

Lastly, 50% of the funding for this project was obtained through a Colorado State EMS Grant, thus reducing the cost to the tax payers of Northeast Teller County Fire Protection District.

 

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Upcoming Events

Northeast Teller County Fire Protection District strives to stay involved with our community. We attend community related events by bringing firefighters and apparatus. Here are a few upcoming community events that we will be attending:

7/24/2010 - Ribbon Cutting at Bog D Motorsports - 180 N Highway 67 -10:00 am

8/4/2010 - Teller County Fair - Cripple Creek Fairgrounds - 8:00 am

8/7/2010 - 6th Annual Critterfest - 201 S. Fairview - 9:00 am to 4:00 pm

8/7/2010 - Mountain Arts Festival - Ute Pass Cultural Center (UPCC) - 10:00 am to 5:00 pm

8/11/2010 - Touch a Truck - Meadow Woods Sports Complex -10:00 am

8/13/2010 - Summer Street Dance - UPCC - 7:00 pm

8/14/2010 - 21st Annual Mayors Cup - UPCC - 7:30 am

8/17/2010 - Business After Hours: Coldwell Banker - 18401 E Hwy 24 - 5:30 pm

If you are planning a special event and would like us to be present please contact the Executive Assistant through the “contact” tab on the left.

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REDZONE SURVEYS

In the Summer of 2010, you may see members of the Northeast Teller County Fire Corps out and about in the district.  We will be conducting surveys of properties to assess the wildland fire risk to homes especially in the rural areas of the district.  Members will use a software program called "Redzone" to assess the level of risk by answering numerous questions relating to the defensible space around your home.  We would like our work to coincide with the Woodland Park Healthy Forest Initiative.  Click here to view the map!  The data is collected and kept at the district to help us protect your home in the event of a wildland fire.  If you have any questions regarding this project, don't hesitate to contact any members of the team or call station 1 (Bus. Line 719-687-1866).

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Website

Welcome to the web site for the Northeast Teller County Fire Protection District.  We hope you take a moment to navigate through it and let us know if was helpful to you.  We love suggestions so please use the contact section and let the chief know what suggestions you may have to serve you better.

In other news, we are preparing for a new year of challenges while facing an uncertain economy.  We continue to develop our training program so we can meet the challenges of new technology especially in the areas of building construction and new automobile technology.  We are also gearing up for wildland fire season since it is really just around the corner for us.