IN THE NEWS . . .

Clear Creek Fire Authority (CCFA) is a consolidated fire protection and emergency service agency serving the municipalities of Empire, Georgetown, Idaho Springs and Silver Plume and the unincorporated lands of Clear Creek County previously represented by the Clear Creek Emergency Services District (ESD).

CCFA's 50 volunteers and four paid administrative and maintenance personnel operate eight fire stations and, in 2008, responded to more than 1,100 emergencies throughout its 335 square miles of Clear Creek County. That extensive territory includes I-70 (Colorado’s primary east-west transportation corridor), Clear Creek (a world class rafting river) and its tributaries, four 14,000-foot peaks, two ski areas, several hundred abandoned mines, residential and business districts that date to the 1860s, 7,000 residents, hundreds of thousands of visitors, and part of the states infamous wildland-urban interface.

CCFA was organized January 4, 1999, when the municipal fire departments in Empire, Georgetown, Idaho Springs, Silver Plume and the ESD fire departments of Dumont, St. Mary’s and York Gulch consolidated their resources and missions under a single intergovernmental agreement. This contract outlines the governance, funding and operation of the Authority. An eight-member board of directors governs CCFA; each director is appointed by a municipality or the ESD.

Our volunteers receive on-the-job training in addition to weekly courses and drills to prepare them for the variety of emergencies that occur each year. All of them also are encouraged to attend courses offered outside CCFA. Most firefighters have medical training as EMT-paramedics, EMT-basics and first responders. Other specialized training enables CCFA firefighters to respond safely and professionally to structure and wildland fires, extrications, hazardous materials incidents, backcountry rescues, swiftwater rescues, ice rescues and investigations.