EVERGREEN, Colo. — Evergreen Fire Rescue is considering adding paid positions to its team, a first for the volunteer department.
Fire Chief Mike Weege has noticed a steady change in the 23 years he’s been with EFR.
“We have an aging population, we have a growing population,” he said.
A growing community means growing demand in calls for service.
The district board of the Evergreen Fire Protection District mapped out a master plan in 2023 to determine the best practices for the department in the long run.
“Some subject matter experts took an outside look at the organization,” Fire Chief Weege said. “The very top priority that they had listed was apparatus availability, which was asking us to do a deep dive into how can we get fire trucks on the road faster.”
The problem now is that aging population.
“We had a lot of people willing to volunteer that's finally caught up to us where our academies have gotten smaller," Weege said.
The EFR board will take a vote on adding six new positions later this month.
This would make it a combination fire department, meaning the new hires would join the rest of the volunteer team to answer calls more effectively.
Of course, the need for volunteer firefighters will still be there.
“Most people join because this is their home, they want to serve their neighbors, they want to serve their community. And that feeling you get responding to your neighbors responding to people, you know, in the community. It stays with you,” Weege said.
Anyone interested in volunteering with EFR can do so here.
