2024 Annual Report

2024 started off with a bang as we were forced to address a couple of unique personnel issues. Although the issues were distracting and affected our initial efficiency, we quickly found out that the corrections we made were very good choices. I was so proud of our organization for making the hard decisions and never allowing the service level to our customers to be affected. 

As the year progressed, I watched our organization regain its cohesiveness and our crews became much more focused on what we value as an organization. It has been rewarding to watch our members step into new roles and excel beyond any previous expectations. Even with the many distractions both externally and internally, we were able to accomplish so much: 

• We were able to increase our Station 272 staffing levels by another 10% and should soon see 100% minimum staffing. 
• Our 2024 fire academy produced some of our finest firefighters to date, including a significant addition of women in our firefighter ranks. 
• We continued to enhance our policies and procedures to keep up with our changing community and industry. We implemented the first ever EV Fire SOP and used it to train our crews.
• We finalized and updated our employee handbook with necessary updates that keep our employees and the district safe. 
• We have refined our onboarding process even further to accommodate the needs of our shifts and our membership personnel. 
• We fought a hard battle at the capitol…and lost for the most part. 
• We received two very notable state-wide awards: Special District of the year and Fire Chief of the year. 
• Our amazing Admin Staff managed to increase our capabilities and support while continuing to stabilize our financial reserves.

Calls for Service Analysis

The prevention division continues to enhance community safety by implementing a comprehensive focus on risk reduction. We accomplished this through various initiatives within the division. We conducted detailed plan reviews and inspections of local businesses and communities to ensure compliance with adopted codes. The crews, along with Fire Prevention Specialist Ryan Seng, inspected 180 existing properties with numerous reinspects to gain compliance. That program continues to be very successful in reducing risk and educating our business owners. We have sent out surveys to our business owners about our existing business inspection program and, so far, the results are overwhelmingly positive. 

Additionally, we actively engaged in proactive community outreach efforts to educate our community about safety practices, promote awareness of risks, and foster a collaborative environment for safety. Fire and Life Safety Educator Erin Loeks had her busiest October and November providing safety messages to our schools during what we call now: “Fire Prevention Month.” We also continue to provide Community CPR classes at a reduced rate, and the Babysitting Classes were well attended. We expect to expand the number of classes for this year. This year, we partnered with the Colorado State Forest Service to apply for the Forest Restoration and Wildfire Risk Mitigation Grant for homeowners to receive a 50% match on mitigation projects on their properties in the subdivision of Gamble Oaks, Saddlewood, Bonnie Ridge, The Pines, and the open space of Gold Creek Village. Ryan Seng led this grant process, ensuring we meet performance-based objectives before submitting the grant application. We conducted mitigation reduction training for several of our communities and held an informational meeting on the grant. 

Our growth continued steadily this year. We collected $98,000 in impact fees primarily for the Legacy Village Subdivision, which was completed at least a year ahead of schedule. Additionally, we collected $166,000 for developer contributions specifically for the Independence Subdivision. We also drafted a new gift agreement with the subdivision to secure higher contribution per home in future filings past Filing 4. 

In the second half of 2024, the Chief and I took the initiative to realign our Command Staff meetings, with a renewed focus on leadership and the essential goals of our department. We engaged with the book “Why Leaders Fail and the 7 Prescriptions for Success,” which sparked meaningful group discussions and self-evaluations. The Command Staff has responded positively to this approach, viewing our meetings as valuable training opportunities. Looking ahead to 2025, we are committed to building on this momentum to enhance our cohesiveness and further develop our leadership skills.

Photo of graph showing different prevention statistics from 2015 - 2024

Photo of graph showing 2024 Fire Prevention Hours Percentage

Photos of fire prevention activities throughout the year

In 2024, we receive a few different grants. We completed the FEMA SCBA grant we received in 2023. Firehouse Subs awarded us a grant for tech rescue equipment for $28k. We purchased 4 new prams from the EMTS grant we were awarded in 2023 for $61k. Late in 2024, we applied for the grant from the CO Division of Local Governments for a new sewer line at Station 271 and a new septic field for Station 273, which we were awarded for $27k. At the end of November, our SnowCat’s engine cracked, and we were able to apply for an emergency grant from CO Health Facilities and EMS to get a 50% funding grant to repair this apparatus. This repair was completed at the end of December for $122k. The last grant we applied for was the CREATE (Colorado Resource for Emergency and Trauma Education) grant, which will pay half of one employee’s paramedic tuition. This reserve will start school in January. 

2024 was also a good year for interest income. We collected $191,000 in interest, which is 25% more than 2023. I didn’t think we would be able to collect this much with the interest rates in 2024, but everything seemed to work in our favor. I really do not think we will get this much in 2025, but I will try. 

Property tax collection for 2024 was pretty good. We collected all that was expected, and then the state fulfilled the backfill that they had been talking about at a total of $437,668 for EFPD. With this money, we were able to purchase a new UTV to help with community events and snow removal around the stations and better security surveillance for the stations. This money has also helped us grow our fund balance to over $3M dollars, which will help in the coming years since the legislation has been put into place that will only let our assessed value grow up to 5% each year. 

This year, we used our balance of impact fees to pay off our administrative building lease which will help us save more money in the coming years for new apparatus or upgrades to stations. 

On the human resources side, we had an interesting start to our year. We had a few personnel issues that had 3 people resign from the district. We were able to pull from our part-time employees to fill these open positions. For 2024, we added 9 new reserves but 10 resigned to go to other departments, and we promoted 2 reserves to part-time. At the end of 2024, we have 19 reserve, 2 water ops, 13 part-time and 26 full-time employees. Our hiring list for 2024 was exhausted by the middle of October, and we have created a new one with 20 reserve and part-time employees that we are excited to pull from in 2025. 

At the end of 2024, we decided that we would need a part-time administrative assistant to help with some of the work for 2025. A job description was created and should be approved at the January board meeting. For this position, we are looking for more of an intern type of employee that would get paid. We are putting this position out to our high schools to get a student to train.

2024 has been a very busy year for everyone. I feel like I missed a bit by being out of service for a couple of months due to surgery but have gotten back into the swing of things. I am hopeful that I will get my full release later this month. 

We ended the year with 1507 calls for service. This is an increase of 117 calls for service from 2023. The crews, as usual, have done a great job of keeping up with the increase in call volume while maintaining a high level of service to our customers. I don’t have final numbers that include the month of December from the State yet, but from my records we had 23 fires and $791,800 in fire losses in 2024. These numbers are up slightly from 2023. I will update the final numbers when I receive the report from the State. 

Here’s a quick overview of 2024 from Operations: 

Station 271 

• New concrete pad poured on the south side entry way. 
• Handicap ramp added to entry. 
• Fire danger sign installed with new landscaping. 
• Northwest bay door replaced. 
• North wall bay door openers replaced. 

Membership 

• Continue to do new member interviews and orientations every other month.
• Completed BC, LT, and FF testing and ranking process. 

Equipment 

• New TICs added to Engine back seats. 
• New Electric Vehicle fire blanket.
• New Rope Rescue equipment delivered from the Firehouse Subs grant. 
• New Ice Rescue suits and rope gear. 
• New fuel tanks installed at fleet for additional fueling options. 

CAD 

• Only minor changes in CAD made this year. 
• Two new call types were added, and minor mapping corrections were performed as identified. 2025 will focus on maintaining the current plans and studying response times with the possibility of balancing call loads between stations depending on staffing levels, etc. 
• CAD to CAD still being worked on by DRDC with an unknown time of integration. 

Apparatus 

• Major mechanical failure of engine on TRV 271. Sent to Tracked Outdoors in Wyoming for replacement. 
• Numerous small repairs and recalls to all apparatus. 
• New paperless maintenance request system put in place. 
• Ongoing Purchasing Committee meetings to spec out new ambulance, Type 1, and Type 3 apparatus. 
• New Battalion and Chief vehicle put in service.

Operations

• New NFIRS reporting and QA/QI system initiated.
• Six members added to Tech Rescue team with monthly joint trainings with South Metro FR.
• New gate code program added to website.
• New cistern signs created and installed to replace broken ones.
• Created curriculum and completed multiple training days and ride alongs with BC applicants to show daily expectations and specific job functions of the Operations division.

Photos of EFPD apparatus on calls throughout the year

• Our 2024 academy started with 8 recruits from Elizabeth. We had one cadet get hired by West Metro right at the end, but he was able to finish our academy. We've already hired two of these recruits as part-time employees, which goes to show how well they are all doing. 
• We had 2/3 of our STOs get promoted to Lieutenant. As a result, Wes McClain and Matt Sheikh were appointed as STOs on B-Shift and C-Shift. 
• Elizabeth Fire had 35 new certifications issued by the DFPC last year. The certs included FFI/Haz-Mat Ops, FFII, DOU, DOP, Instructor I, and Fire Officer I. 
• We logged 7,517 training hours into Target Solutions. 
• Our tech rescue team trained regularly with South Metro and Castle Rock throughout the year. These trainings not only provided them with knowledge and skills, but they were able to determine equipment needs. A big shout-out to Chief Mackall: he was able to get a grant from Firehouse Subs to purchase the equipment needed. Another big shout-out to Chief Brown for heading up the Tech Rescue program and lining out the training for the team. 
• Lt. Einarsen, Lt. Tyler, and Paramedic Johnson attended an Ice Rescue Tech training. They brought information from the training back to each shift and updated our SOP. Other outside classes that were attended include Forcible Entry, Ground Ladders, and Instructor Methodology. 
• There were quite a few changes with the DFPC this year. Some of the important ones are as follows: 
  • Certification renewals are now in a 5-year cycle instead of 3 years.
  • The written exam for FFI has changed the passing grade from 70% to 80%. 
  • The written Haz-Mat Awareness/Ops written exam continues to have a horrendous pass rate across the state. We are doing what we can at EFPD to think of new approaches to overcome this problem. 
  • In years past, if someone failed an exam, there was a 30-day wait period before we could retake the test. That has been changed to 14 days. 
• Our MSA packs were put into service earlier last year. The crews trained a lot on them before going in service, and it was a pretty smooth transition. The crews seem to like them, and we have had very few issues and repair needs. A huge thanks to Sarah and Chief Steck for doing the grant work for this project. Lt. Regan and Lt. Tyler both attended a class to become certified repair technicians, which is a big cost-savings to the department. Thank you both for stepping up for that role! 
• Our Peer Support Team grew from 1 member to 4. I am so thankful and excited for our folks to have this resource available. The team was used quite frequently, and we were able to assist other responder agencies in the County during some difficult times. I have had great feedback on the resources that are available. The only downside is that many of the resources are on the verge of being overwhelmed with appointments, and the wait time can be a bit long. Fortunately, I have been able to personally contact some resources to speed that process up when the need is immediate. I don't think this will be an ongoing issue. We don't have immediate plans to increase the number of Peer Supporters, but we will keep tabs on our workload. The team now consists of Paramedic Gamboa, Lt. Holt, STO McClain, and myself. 
• Station 272 received quite a few important upgrades. The parking lot is now paved, they have new equipment for station grounds, a power washer, household essentials, new mattresses, and new blackout blinds. Thanks to Lt. Neisen and Lt. Regan for putting all of that together.

Photos of academy and trainings throughout the year

To the board: 2024 was our busiest year yet. I have highlighted a few of our accomplishments below, but this is by no means an all-inclusive list. We might not view the daily work and tasks we do as accomplishments; some are hard to even remember. It’s the sum of these small tasks that help grow and enhance our department to what it is today. Every one of the points below was accomplished as a team and would be impossible to achieve otherwise. 

EMS: 

• The department invested in our members by providing tuitional assistance toward EMS education, training, and certification courses to include, EMT and IV certification, AHA certifications, and state EMS conference training. We also initiated a program to “grow” paramedics from our current providers by funding paramedic school tuition, with our first member starting school early 2025. 
• Upgraded the interface between our cardiac monitors and patient care report software from a Bluetooth connection to wi-fi cloud based. This is a much simpler and reliable method for providers to upload data from the monitor directly into their PCR. With this upgrade, we also moved away from laptops to iPads for a more cost-effective method of patient care documentation. 
• Added semi-annual EMS skill assessments for all providers to ensure proficiency at all certification levels. 
• Implemented a “BLS attend” portion of the probationary task book to give providers additional “reps” on the skills and tasks needed when transporting patients. 
• Provided 214 hours of in-house EMS training at the shift level or virtual. 

Staffing: 

• Station 272 was staffed 273 days (75%) in 2024. 
• Part-time employees worked a total of 13,710 hours. 
• Reserves worked a total of 8,826 hours. 
• 4,587 Hours of overtime worked. 

Grant Funding: 

• $5,000 from CREATE toward paramedic school tuition. 
• $61,000 from EMTS for emergency snow cat repairs. 
• $121,000 from EMTS toward the purchase of a new type I ambulance. 
• $28,000 from Firehouse Subs for the purchase of tech rescue equipment. 

Station 273 

• New furniture was purchased to replace the 10+ year old donated couches, tables, desks, and chairs. 
• Re-paved the asphalt parking lot and entrance, which was long overdue. 
• Reorganized bay and gear storage to take advantage of available space. 
• New septic system installed; thanks, Chief Steck! 
• New bay door openers installed.

Photos of various fire department activities throughout the year